PINCKNEY, Mich.–Stories about relationships gone bad or sideways are enduring and universal. Perhaps that’s why Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years has been performed all over the world. The newest production to hit Southeast Michigan is at The Dio Dinner & Entertainment in Pinckney.

Dio artistic director Steve Debruyne has adopted the two-person musical, having performed a weekend run last season at The Dio. Here, as last year, his partner is Thalia Schramm who plays Cathy to Debruyne’s Jaime. The two actors have played many times on stage together, and their chemistry shows through in a show where chemistry is key, even in a story about a bad break up.

Jaime is an aspiring writer and Kathy is a struggling actress. Brown has them tell their respective stories about their five year relationship in opposing chronological order. Kathy opens the show alone, mourning the end of her marriage (“Still Hurting”). The action then shifts to Jaime, and it’s five years earlier and he is singing the light-hearted “Shiksa Goddess” after meeting Jaime. The stories go from there for each character.

The whole play is sung, song against song. The play also could have been called “He said. She said.” DeBruyne adopted this play for good reason. As artistic director of the dinner theater, he frequently casts himself into roles that are otherwise hard to cast. Sometimes, he plays a lead (Home for the Holidays) and other times he is a supporting actor (Dracula, Bus Stop, Rock of Ages). Here, we get to see him stretch his considerable chops, and go all out on songs that perfectly fit his vocal range. Moreover, he does an excellent job of conveying the range of emotions of Jaime–from being besotted, to frustration and anger but still caring and wanting, to being done with it.

Thalia Schramm inhabits Cathy with rich authenticity as the girl who is trying hard in her efforts to get to Broadway and off the tour circuit, but who finds the pieces not falling into place as easily as they are for Jaime. There is plenty of real hurt, jealousy, want and love along the way to her sheer resignation.

The only time the two are actually together in time is at the point of their actual wedding. That Mr. Brown has the two characters otherwise always apart, in different time, is a metaphor for many a modern marriage, especially one that joined two people not fully formed and wanting their own constellation in which to live. Because they are not together in the play, though, it can be difficult at times to do much more than observe the disintegration of a well-intended marriage like we are watching a TV show, or an exhibit behind glass.

The set design by Matthew Tomich is stark white, with doors for each of them to make exits and entrances, and he does very well to change the lighting on the stage canvas to convey different settings, from a car to an apartment to Central Park. Brian Rose is music director, plays keyboard and leads a trio that includes violin and cello.

The music is of a modern feel and style, and while it was a bit of a flop when it ran Off Broadway, the theme and contemporary music has made it popular in regional theater the world over. It was also turned into a film, though one with a small budget and small returns.

Nevertheless, both actors here are in fine voice, the music being written as if for them specifically to show their best stuff. Listening to and watching DeBruyne and Schramm go from love to lost and lament is a more pleasant journey for us than the characters.