The musical opens on a Saturday night in 1990 as Jon is about to turn 30. His show, Superbia, will have its first public performance in a few days, and he's worried that he may have made a wrong career choice! We meet his girlfriend, Susan, and his best friend, Michael. Later, reality intrudes, and Jon has to go to work at the diner. Inspired by the all-too-familiar brunch scene, Jon inverts a song by his real-life mentor, Stephen Sondheim. Afterwards, Michael takes him to see the fancy apartment he has just bought, and the two have fun contrasting its pleasures with life in Jonathan's ancient walk-up flat. Later in the evening, he and Susan have one of their increasingly frequent spats about nothing -- and everything.
As Johnny's birthday approaches, he ponders the choices we face in life, and thinks about how we translate those decisions into everyday living.