Every year, thousands of recent graduates and twentysomethings make their way to New York City. They’re chasing a dream. They’re escaping their hometowns. They have “something [they've] gotta prove.” But many of them quickly find out that “dreams don’t pay the bills,” and soon they’re working the restaurant circuit to make ends meet while “waiting for [their] real life to begin.”

I’ve lifted lyrics straight out of “Brunch: The Musical” to write that paragraph, and by the end of this hysterically funny, energetic, uplifting off-Broadway show, I was practically singing along. Few rock musicals have hit so close to home.

“Brunch…” explores the crisis that almost every twentysomething faces (and that some revisit in later years): What do I want to do with my life? This familiar question gets examined through the lens of an even more familiar institution: the New York City brunch scene. The story takes place in a busy restaurant where young wait staff juggle the demands of a micromanager boss, under-tipping diners, and their own friendships and relationships.

What drew me into the show immediately was its fantastic score (music and lyrics by director Rick Kunzi). It’s rare when every song in a musical rocks, and Brunch’s soundtrack was stunningly flawless. The talented cast brought so much electricity and chemistry to the ensemble show-stoppers that they could’ve put RENT to shame. A few of them, such as Cara Babich and Dana Musgrove, have powerhouse voices that would fit in effortlessly with any major Broadway company.

Songs that particularly stood out included “City,” a heart-thumping anthem for every dreamer who’s ever set sights on the Big Apple, and “I’d Say No,” a clever homage to what it’s like to be a waiter (an experience every person should have?). “Dreamer” expressed that well-known doubt that creeps in not long after moving to New York – “Maybe I should give up” – and the show’s most moving ballad, Meghann Dreyfuss’ and Tony Edgerton’s “Out There,” zeroed in on that post-real-world discovery: It’s not always so easy to leave an awful, soul-crushing job when it pays the bills.

Brunch fumbled a little when it wasn’t rocking out in musical numbers, as a few scenes and dialogues (such as Robby Vee’s run-ins with manager Steve) were over the top and affectedly intense. But there was one hyperexaggerated performance that had me in stitches: Chef, played by music director Martin Landry, and his outrageously campy, badly accented rendition of “If I Was a Vaiter.” Seeing him later conduct the band in full costume while waving a ladle made my night.

To its credit, Brunch didn’t offer any trite solutions to the twentysomething crisis. A more politically correct or predictable musical might have told us to “take control of our own future” and “make our own luck.” But Brunch acknowledged that we can’t always plan out our lives perfectly and that to seize opportunities, there usually has to be something out there to grasp first. Until then, the musical offered much-harder-to-follow implicit advice: Be patient. “Waiting for my real life to begin” doesn’t have to be a passive stance; it keeps the hope alive for something better down the road.

In previews now, Brunch opens April 9 at the Chernuchin Theatre (314 W. 54th St between 8th and 9th) and runs through April 25.

Last 5 posts by Pearl Chen

• Monetizing Emma - August 17th, 2010
• The Addams Family - August 6th, 2010
• Million Dollar Quartet - June 1st, 2010
• This Side of Paradise - April 27th, 2010
• American Idiot - April 17th, 2010

• Monetizing Emma
• The Addams Family
• Million Dollar Quartet
• This Side of Paradise
• American Idiot