Eight times a week, ROOMS a rock romance threatens to blow the roof off of New World Stages.   If you could harness the energy generated by the talented cast, killer band, and fantastic songs, you could keep New York’s rock clubs lit for a year.

Ian Wallace, a reclusive rock musician (Doug Kreeger) falls into a professional and personal relationship with Monica (Leslie Kritzer), an aspiring lyricist.  Their journey takes them from their home in Glasgow in 1977, to a hilariously inappropriate bat mitzvah performance, to a rapid rise up the British pop charts, all the way to New York City and a potentially career-making gig at the Lower East Side’s legendary club CBGB. Ian, especially, must battle demons en route to the show’s sweetly satisfying denouement.

ROOMS features a score by Paul Scott Goodman, best known for his musical Bright Lights, Big City (several tunes from which still ring happily in my head after seeing the show’s premiere ten years ago), and the book is by Goodman and his collaborator in life and art, his wife Miriam Gordon.  Goodman and Gordon deftly capture the underground music world of the late 70s and early 80s.  Ian considers himself a little bit Led Zeppelin while Monica’s a little bit Carly Simon, so the tunefully varied score and witty wordplay swing between the two extremes nicely, with a touch of Goodman’s own Gaelic background.

And oh, the cast!   There are only two actors in this musical, but with such talents as Leslie Kritzer and Doug Kreeger, why would you need anyone else on stage?   Kritzer, with her clarion voice and canny comic timing, proves why she’s one of musical theatre’s most buzzed-about young actors, having appeared recently in A Catered Affair, Hairspray and Legally Blonde, as well as her Joe’s Pub act, Leslie Kritzer is Patti LuPone at Les Mouches.  Kreeger wears his role like a comfortable old pair of jeans, having played Ian in several regional productions prior to the new Off-Broadway mounting.    His rendition of “Clean,” a gorgeous number about Ian overcoming his alcoholism, is particularly affecting.    Under the slick direction of Scott Schwartz, both Kritzer and Kreeger deliver smart, nuanced performances.

ROOMS, like its New World Stages neighbor Altar Boyz, premiered as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), an absolutely essential organization for anyone who cares about the future of intelligent, original musicals.  While much of the theatrical scene in Times Square resembles a cineplex-cum-lite FM "greatest hits" collection, it’s refreshing that there’s room in New York for ROOMS – an original musical with original music.