With four characters, a piano, and an unassuming story about normal people going about their lives in New York, the musical Ordinary Days has got to be by Stephen Sondheim, right?

Wrong. For Ordinary days, next up in the Q The Locals season at The Q, is a sung-through show entirely written by Adam Gwon. Billed as “the best musical you’ve likely never heard of” and praised by director Chris Zuber as “humble”.

Briefly, Ordinary Days tells the story of four young New Yorkers — Jason (Grant Pegg), who’s moving in with his girlfriend Claire (Kelly Roberts), postgraduate student Deb (Vanessa Valois) who’s writing a thesis on Virginia Woolf and artist, Warren (Joel Horwood) who find her notes when she accidentally drops them.

There is a peripheral intersection between them and all the while the traffic gets worse and worse.

The song titles give us a clue, too – Saturday at the Met, Hundred-Story City, Sort-Of Fairy Tale and Gotta Get Out.

Since 2008 it’s been quietly but steadily performed everywhere from Broadway to Barcelona. I counted 48 performances of the play scheduled for campuses and small theatre in the US and UK between now and December in locations as diverse as Oxford and Cambridge in the UK, and Kansas, Virginia,  Texas, Idaho, Florida and Northern Iowa in the US.

It’s only ever enjoyed two short outings in Australia, one in Sydney in 2012, and another at Melbourne’s Chapel Off Chapel in 2017.

So, what is the secret of its low-key success?

Zuber says: “First and foremost, it is fast and fun. It also has moments of stillness where great singers (accompanied by a great pianist) will blow you away.”

That great pianist is local composer Matt Webster, who has worked with the Q’s Jordan Best for a long time.

When I catch up with singer Grant Pegg, he elaborates on the challenges of a boutique (some say chamber) musical.

“It’s a good challenge for a designer [that turns out to be Zuber] with just four performers and a piano on an epic stage at The Q.”

Hundreds of milk crates will be involved to evoke the New York City skyline, he reveals.

Pegg has been more a director than an actor since 2018 when he played the lead in Jesus Christ Superstar, so says: “There is a bit of trepidation, your voice does change. I think it’s changed in a good way.

“The music is hard and the piano is the only instrument, but it’s quite poetic.”

Describing it as a high-level, sophisticated show, he says his character Jason is wanting to move the relationship forward, but finds Claire is getting more guarded.

“The musical is a bit gentler than many that you’ll hear,” he says.

“There’s a lot of loneliness but there’s the ability to make meaningful connections. The simple things in life are gentle.

“There is no flashy Megamix ending, it’s more like a play, but Chris has found the inherent theatrical elements in the show.

“The project was an idea sparked during lockdown. A number of us maintained connections, so we learnt the show online, but we didn’t know we’d ever be able to do a production in a real theatre… For most of us it’s been like a re-emergence.

“Kelly and Vanessa have had kids in the meantime, it’s wonderful being a small group to be in a production of something with friends.”

Pegg says it’s important to have such an accomplished musical director as Webster on board, adding: “It’s really hard music, but Vanessa learns singing from him and Matthew worked with Kelly and me before on the musicals Spring Awakening and Heathers… we all work in synergy.”

Gwon’s music, he believes is very technical and probably owes something to Sondheim or Jason Robert Brown in the ballads, but as well has “strange little patter songs and dissonant harmonies”.

“We all have day jobs, we do this for fun and we want to make sure that what we do is excellent…. We are similar sorts of people,” he says.

Ordinary Days, The Q, Queanbeyan, September 5-7.