Allens Lane is hosting the Pretzel Theater Company in a joyous revival of “Songs for a New World.” With music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, the show is a collection of songs that build up momentum during the course of its 90-minute run.

“New World” premiered Off-Broadway in 1995. It is a “Song Cycle,” the first of Brown’s works to reach the stage. The Song Cycle, developed in Germany in the mid-19th century, is neither theater nor music revue but a unique genre that unifies a collection of songs with an underlying theme or common thread.

In “New World,” that thread is seeing how vastly different characters can share the same core experience: a singular moment of crisis, a tremulous realization that they have reached the end of the road and that, in this precise moment, a defining action will set them on a new path, for better or worse.

The opening scene, “On the Deck of a Spanish Sailing Ship,” starts you on a journey. It is 1492, and the ship captain prays to God that he and fellow travelers will survive in the New World. “Spanish Sailing Ship” sets the stage for all the songs that follow.

Director Josh Tull follows the song order of the original production. Four singers, two women and two men, perform in both solo and ensemble numbers. Music director Cheri Tigh on piano leads a drum and keyboard trio to accompany each vignette. Some are truly arresting.

In “Stars and Moon,” Alyssia Sims plays a woman who turned down two passionate suitors to marry for money. She recollects: “I’ll give you truth and a future that’s 20 times better than any Hollywood plot. And I thought, ‘You know, I’d rather have a yacht.’” After a few years of marriage, the woman has wry regrets.

Sims stands out with her animated stage presence and full-throated singing. Earlier in the show, she captures your attention in “Just One Step,” where a neglected woman tries to get her husband’s attention by threatening to jump off the 57th-floor windowsill of their Manhattan penthouse.

Each of the four performers has memorable moments. In “I’m Not Afraid of Anything,” Galadriel Sevener is a young woman who now realizes that people in her life have been holding her back. As she vows to break free, Sevener evokes a complicated aura, a mix of anger, fear and determination. In “Lullaby,” Sevener is a pregnant woman with an ecstatic vision of herself as another Virgin Mary birthing the world’s savior.

“King of the World” is a dramatic solo. CJ Fischer acts out the distress of an imprisoned man determined to break free and take up his rightful place as the leader of men. Is this a pipe dream? A kindred sense of lost cause pervades “The Steam Train,” where Fischer plays a teenager who aspires to be a basketball star.

In “The World Was Dancing,” Ryan Baber, a natural for the musical stage, tells the story of how his father lost his store and his dream. The son is so scarred that it leads him to abandon what he loves because he fears loss. Baber also teams up with Fischer in an ensemble number, “The River Won’t Flow,” where a couple of derelicts conclude their lives have been fated.

Jason Robert Brown has a gift for lyrics that resembles the approach of Stephen Sondheim — unpretentious yet clever language that enhances drama. His music is a mix of styles: The feeling in “The River Won’t Flow” is bluesy; the beats in “Just One Step” are chimerical; other music is choral. But the acoustics help make the accompaniment so insistent that, at times, the singer competes with the trio to be heard.

The final ensemble numbers, “The New World” and “Hear My Song,” sum up this lively show: Suffering has meaning. Strength grows out of pain, hardship and sorrow. Embrace the special moment, believe in tomorrow.

Allens Lane Theater is located at 601 W. Allens Lane. “Songs for a New World” will run through Aug 2. Tickets available at 215-248-0546.