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Gravity Defied is an exuberant young theater company that exudes the kind of optimism that defies gravity.

Which means it’s not for everyone. Neither is its new musical titled, for reals, “[Title of Show].” Its mantra: “Better to be nine people out of 100’s favorite thing, than 100 people’s ninth-favorite thing.”

This is not a musical for the hard-hearted, the jaded or anyone unschooled in all things Bernadette Peters, “Starlight Express” or Sardi’s.

It’s for all those die-hard musical theater geeks (and “Gleeks!”) who worship at the temple of underdogs, “Avenue Q” and Sutton Foster. And if you don’t know who that is, this show is most definitely not for you.

It’s for dreamers like writers Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell, whose self-referential and considerably narcissistic little 2004 musical chronicles how they set out to write a musical that made it to Broadway . . . which it did, but not until four years later, in 2008.

It’s for dreamers like Keith Rabin Jr. and Danny Harrigan, who started Gravity Defied with the same unabashed, unyielding enthusiasm. Fitting, then, that they’re playing Jeff and Hunter in this affable staging, newly extended through Nov. 28 at the Aurora Fox.

“[Title of Show]” started as a small hit at the New York Theatre Festival, with an obvious appeal to anyone who has staked a claim to the Broadway dream. But the idea that this modest, insider musical might ever cross over to a large enough audience to warrant a Broadway stage was absurd.

It did make it there, though, once its indefatigable creators taped segments of their show and posted them on the Web, where it cultivated a large following.

Still, “[Title of Show]” is fraught with contradiction. Jeff and Hunter are determined to write a musical in just three weeks. That they’re slackers with a taste for fame but zero creative inspiration could be seen as an affront to those who actually have some. “A Chorus Line,” this ain’t.

It’s a modern-day “Pippin” — and their corner of the sky is a corner table at Sardi’s.

The show begins with four actors, four chairs (each decorated to match the personality of its character) and a piano helmed by Midge McMoyer Smith.

Much of the play traces the friendship between these two gay New York nobodies and their two actress pals — Heidi (promising newcomer Alaina Beth Reel), who has tasted some Broadway success (the real Heidi went on to perform in the Denver-born “The Little Mermaid”), and Susan (Misha Johnson), who’s giving it one last go after ditching her dreams of stardom for an office job.

The performances are all winning, but the musical constantly straddles the line between whimsical and cloying. It’s overly precious and over-laden with inside references, not only to the New York theater scene, but to ours in Denver as well — each another risky opportunity to alienate an audience already impossibly out of the loop. Really, how many Aurorans can be expected to know that Mamie Duncan-Gibbs is a Broadway actor, or that Ken Billington is a famous lighting designer? And why would two New Yorkers comment on Nick Sugar’s recent Denver performance in “Hedwig”?

But while stories about making it in showbiz are a dime a dozen, the actors’ charm and the musical’s unique style keep it from feeling too derivative of anything — other than “Seinfeld.” If only it look fewer cutesy tangents and indulged in less everyday minutiae, there might be more of an opportunity to deliver a real emotional climax.

They never tell you that “[Title of Show]” was neither a Broadway hit nor a total flop — it played three months before petering out.

Perhaps it made it that far because it has a big, wide-open heart. But the door into it is only open a crack, to members only.

John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com

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“[Title of Show]” **1/2 (out of four stars)

Musical. Presented by Gravity Defied Theatre at the Aurora Fox Arts Center Studio Theatre, 9900 E. Colfax Ave. Directed by Benjy Schirm. Through Nov. 28. 7:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays; 4 p.m. Sundays. 1 hour, 50 minutes. $18-$25. 303-325-3959 or