A simple show in every way, Ordinary Days, doesn't rely on the drama and flair of most musicals to get its point across.

The musical, being performed until Aug. 2 at the Citizens Bank Theatre, 146 S. Allen St., tells the story of four 20-somethings living in New York City and how their lives distantly intersect. One story surrounds two new friends, Deb and Warren, while the other is about a young couple with relationship problems, Jason and Claire.

Deb and Warren meet after Deb loses her notes for her thesis on the subway. Warren finds them, and they meet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but not until after Deb gets hopelessly lost, bumping into Jason. The two don't talk, but after she leaves, Jason laments about his relationship with Claire. The two have been dating for some time and he is in love with her, but there's something in her past that is keeping Claire from letting him into her heart.

The plot is simple. The set is simple, painted like a map in the subway with three structures on the stage that look like colorful ceramic cylinders. The four characters are real, but also simple. The play is not a Broadway hit, the singing is not spectacular and there's next to no dancing. Watching it, I realized the musicals performed at my high school were much more complicated than Ordinary Days.

But that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Being set in a very complicated and crazy city, the simplicity of the play makes it more endearing. It's -- simply -- about life and finding the "big picture." At one point in the play Deb talks about her plans and where she sees herself in five years -- her own big picture. And Warren says, "you and me, and your lukewarm tea could be your big picture."

The character of Deb juxtaposed against Warren makes an interesting friendship between the two -- and it doesn't evolve to more than that. This is explained in a witty way but in no way changes the basic plot. Deb is everything Warren isn't. She's rude, impatient, overly dramatic, abrasive and pessimistic. On the other hand, Warren is cheerful, friendly, optimistic to a fault and a hopeless romantic. He even calls his and Deb's meeting an almost, not quite, New York fairytale.

Then there's Claire and Jason. At the beginning, their relationship seems a little dry. They seem like opposites but it's hard to understand Claire's aversion to him and his reluctance to take the plunge and tell her he loves her. When Claire sings, "You can't make life a single moment in time -- but I'm trying," it's hard to see why she can't just move forward and enjoy the moments the future holds. However, toward the end of the play their relationship is more deeply explained and Claire's hesitations are easily understood.

The characters and dialogue are quirky but never unbelievable. And all four characters never directly meet. There's no over the top coincidences that cause them to meet, they just quietly cross paths without realizing it.

In the end, Deb goes over to the apartment where Warren is cat sitting. He shows her the balcony view and the audience finally sees a calmer, kinder side to her character. This transition almost comes too late to believe her sincerity, but one still does.

Acting in the moment, Warren takes a project he's been working on and throws it off the balcony. This project, which appears briefly earlier in the play, is never really explained. It entails him handing out brightly colored pieces of paper with inspirational, hand-written quotes on them while walking around the city. One happens to end up in Deb's hands. He throws them off the balcony and they float on to the floor of the stage (or streets of the city). On opposite sides of the stage Claire and Jason stand thinking about each other but not knowing they are feet apart. They each pick up a flyer, and let's just say the quotes they read to the audience are quite fitting to their situation, and its solution.

When leaving Citizens Bank Theatre there was a box with colorful sheets of paper. The box read, "take one, it will inspire you." I grabbed a small bright green piece of paper and unfolded it. The note read, "Share a life story." The actors in the play told me their story through song, but like most college students I'm still far away from knowing how my own life will play out -- but it's never to early to start writing it.