Reverse timelines: How ‘The Last Five Years’ gives your average romance a run for its money
Two Sacramento stars and one unforgettable love story. Two actors who call the capital city their hometown, are now bringing musical, the musical rather, the last 5 years to *** local stage this weekend and this morning they join us in studio, Ana’Reilly Portal and Peter Siri. Thank you so much for joining us, both of you. Thank you for having me appreciate having you. All right, so both in New York actually just currently, both of you just graduated actually congratulations. Uh, how did your time in Sacramento, especially within the youth programs, really play *** part in everything? Um, uh, it, it really changed my life. I mean, when the youth program, first youth theater program, Young Actors Stage first came to my school, I mean it was just like *** bomb went off in my head and it, it like I, from then I did like 3 shows *** year and it really ignited this love of theater for me, yeah, basically the light bulb kind of moment and now both of you again recently graduated, you’re gonna be heading off to London, correct, for more schooling. Yes, more schooling. I’m doing *** 10 month program at the Royal Academy of Music for musical theater, and Ana, you’re going to be hitting the grind. Yes, back to it. We’ll see what my agents bring me. Very nice, but that’s also very exciting. And again, I got to imagine this will be *** nice, let’s not say warm up because this is ***, this is *** great production. So tell us *** little bit about the musical that you folks are being putting on. Yeah, it’s about ***. Couple, but what’s interesting about it is it goes in opposite order for each character so the, the husband begins at the beginning of the relationship and to the to the divorce spoiler and then um the the wife starts from the end of the relationship and goes to the beginning and they cross paths at the wedding. But the rest of it you’re on your own, so the audience gets to basically receive the song as the other person. So oh that’s so interesting. So like reverse timelines kind of going there, um, and also pretty neat because you folks have both been performing with each other since you were very young. Uh, how special is that to kind of rejoin on, on one stage and share it? It’s amazing, especially in such an intimate stories of the last five years to have that foundation and that. History together performing when we were younger is is such *** beautiful yeah it’s very helpful with such an intimate uh storyline to already know the person extremely well. Yeah, right, uh, tell me, tell me *** little bit about your character. I mean, you kind of just touched *** little bit on the entire plot, but tell me *** little bit about your character. Why do you think that both of them start to diverge the way that they do? Yeah, so Cathy is an aspiring actress and Jamie is ***, um, is *** very successful writer. And the the divergence ends up happening because of her of of both, but on her end, the jealousy that she has towards his success because her career is not working out the way that she planned it to. I think that’s *** lot very relatable for *** lot of folks. It doesn’t even just have to be based on, uh, the, you know, actor’s experience. Real quick, if somebody wants to go and attend, where can they buy tickets? Where are you folks gonna be performing? Uh, we’re performing at the 24th Street Theater in Curtis Park at Sierra 2 Center. And uh if you want to get tickets, it’s young actorstage.com. Very good. And we do have that up on your screen. So there you go. 2 performances. Does that sound right? There are 33. OK, OK, 2 and 7. My eyesight, not what it used to be. Peter and Ana, thank you so much for joining us this morning. Appreciate both of your time. Thank you so much for having us and, and welcome home. Thank you. The time right now is 8:47. Brandy, back to you, Mike. Thank you.
Reverse timelines: How ‘The Last Five Years’ gives your average romance a run for its money
Updated: 10:40 AM PDT Jul 16, 2026
Peter Sunseri and Ana Riley Portal play a couple who have gone through five years of their relationship together: dating, marriage, divorce. Only, the play depicts the relationship differently than your average romance. The play is set up following their individual storylines. Portal’s character, Cathy, starts her story off at the couple’s divorce and moves backward through the relationship, while Sunseri’s character, Jamie, starts his story off when the couple first starts dating. Their storylines cross at their wedding, and that specific scene is the only time the two speak to each other throughout the entire show. The couple starts to diverge when Cathy becomes jealous of Jamie, resulting in a negative turn in their relationship that we hear in one of the songs. They both sing the same songs, just in different tones to reflect how each character is feeling at that specific moment in their storyline. The actors, both located in New York for school but call Sacramento their hometown, are bringing the play to Sacramento this weekend, July 18-19. Sunseri credits The Young Actors Stage for his initial interest in theater, and said that since they came to his school, he’s achieved up to three shows a year. “It was just like a bomb went off in my head,” Sunseri said. “It really ignited this love of theater for me.” Sunseri and Portal are more than just recent co-stars, as they used to perform with each other when they were young. “It’s very helpful, with such an intimate storyline, to already know the person extremely well,” Portal said. The show will start at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday at the 24th Street Theater at the Sierra 2 Center. The Sunday showing is at 2 p.m. Tickets are $25, and you can purchase them here. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel | Make KCRA a preferred news source in Google
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
Peter Sunseri and Ana Riley Portal play a couple who have gone through five years of their relationship together: dating, marriage, divorce.
Only, the play depicts the relationship differently than your average romance.
The play is set up following their individual storylines. Portal’s character, Cathy, starts her story off at the couple’s divorce and moves backward through the relationship, while Sunseri’s character, Jamie, starts his story off when the couple first starts dating.
Their storylines cross at their wedding, and that specific scene is the only time the two speak to each other throughout the entire show.
The couple starts to diverge when Cathy becomes jealous of Jamie, resulting in a negative turn in their relationship that we hear in one of the songs. They both sing the same songs, just in different tones to reflect how each character is feeling at that specific moment in their storyline.
The actors, both located in New York for school but call Sacramento their hometown, are bringing the play to Sacramento this weekend, July 18-19.
Sunseri credits The Young Actors Stage for his initial interest in theater, and said that since they came to his school, he’s achieved up to three shows a year.
“It was just like a bomb went off in my head,” Sunseri said. “It really ignited this love of theater for me.”
Sunseri and Portal are more than just recent co-stars, as they used to perform with each other when they were young.
“It’s very helpful, with such an intimate storyline, to already know the person extremely well,” Portal said.
The show will start at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday at the 24th Street Theater at the Sierra 2 Center. The Sunday showing is at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $25, and you can purchase them here.
See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel | Make KCRA a preferred news source in Google