Mackenzie Dunn and Javon King to Tackle Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years

Few musical scores place actors under the microscope quite like Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years. Stripped of an ensemble and propelled by unrelenting emotional counterpoint, the two-hander remains one of modern musical theatre’s most exposed pieces of storytelling.

In early 2027, the chamber piece heads to Sydney and Melbourne in a new independent staging by the Perryman Theatre Company, pairing two of the country's most compelling stage talents: Mackenzie Dunn and Javon King.

Originally premiering in Chicago a quarter of a century ago, the musical unpacks the disintegration of a five-year relationship through a notoriously clever temporal conceit. Jamie, a novelist whose career is taking off, lives out the romance in chronological sequence, starting from that initial burst of obsession. Cathy, an actor weathering constant audition rejections, recounts the relationship in reverse, opening with the bitter sting of abandonment.

The two performers share the stage throughout, yet their characters exist in parallel realities—meeting in temporal sync only once, at their wedding ceremony, before drifting inexorably in opposite directions.

For Dunn and King, taking on Jamie and Cathy represents the culmination of a creative dialogue that began four years ago, when they were both in the Australian production of Hairspray.

"This musical is one of the greatest scores of all time. It is both a marathon and a performer's dream," notes Dunn. "Javon and I have been talking about this show as a pipe dream since we first met in 2022... Five years later... we are finally making this dream a reality."

King, currently touring as Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, steps into Jamie, trading rock-opera bravura for Brown's intricate, conversational jazz-pop writing. Opposite him, Dunn—who recently played Dawn in Waitress—takes on Cathy’s poignant, backward journey through grief and optimism.

Directed by Trudy Dunn with musical direction by Kohan van Sambeeck, the company is billing it as a "fresh, intimate" staging in two compact venues: the 360-seat Foundry at Sydney Lyric and Melbourne’s 175-seat Beckett Theatre at The Malthouse. Design duties are shared between Bianca Pardo (set and costumes), Jasmine Rizk (lighting), and Michael Waters (sound).

Season Dates

• Sydney: 14 January – 6 February 2027 at The Foundry, Sydney Lyric Theatre
• Melbourne: 18 February – 14 March 2027 at the Beckett Theatre, Malthouse Theatre

Tickets and season details are available through Perryman Theatre Company.