Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York)…
Theater review
TWO STRANGERS (CARRY A CAKE ACROSS NEW YORK)
Two hours and half-hour with one intermission. At the Longacre Theatre, 220 W. forty eighth Street.
Like unwrapping a current under the tree, you’re not fairly sure what you’re in for at the start of “Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York),” the little musical from London that opened Thursday evening.
Will I need to keep the reward receipt? By the end of the feel-good vacation comedy, though, it’s been a great Christmas. We’ve acquired a model new Broadway star.
His title is Sam Tutty, the 27-year-old British actor who is making a must-see NYC debut at the Longacre Theatre.
With a crisp pop voice — he performed the title function in “Dear Evan Hansen” in the West End — he’s hilarious, Shirley Temple endearing and effortlessly magnetic as a puppy-dog Englishman who’s just landed in the 5 boroughs for the first time.
Tutty’s co-star in the two-hander, Christiani Pitts, is beautiful as the Brooklyn-born metropolis dweller who picks him up at JFK. Chemistry is important right here, and the well-cast pair blindingly spark. But the reality is that Tutty will not be only carrying a cake, but an total show.
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That’s not to say the musical by the writing staff of Jim Barne and Kit Buchan is awful. “Two Strangers” is never less than likable. But I merely can’t think about it working almost as properly without its extraordinary male lead.
Christiani Pitts and Sam Tutty star in “Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York).” Matthew Murphy
“Two Strangers” is reminiscent of a seasonal Netflix meet-cute. The 2023 flick “Love at First Sight” with Ben Hardy and Haley Lu Richardson immediately comes to thoughts.
Tinder, flirty texting and high prices of dwelling all play a very 2020s function.
Chatty, jokey Dougal (Tutty) is greeted at the airport by Robin (Pitts), a busy introvert he’s never met before and we soon be taught is the youthful sister of Dougal’s dad Mark’s new bride.
Travel is the look du jour in director Tim Jackson’s smooth but not robotic manufacturing.
The intelligent set of silvery suitcases by Soutra Gilmour suggests there’s been an explosion at the Samsonite manufacturing unit. Like misplaced souls Dougal and Robin, the baggage reveals hidden secrets and techniques as the story rolls on.
The bright-eyed vacationer has never spent time with his pop before, either, and is in his dream city of New York for just 48 hours to attend dad’s marriage ceremony. He’s bursting with pleasure, even though his scant data of the Big Apple comes from “Home Alone 2.”
Dougal meets Robin at the airport after touchdown from London. Matthew Murphy
“Is that Times Square?!,” Dougal asks.
“No,” replies struggling barista Robin. “That’s Queens.”
With just $60 in his pocket, he needs to dive proper into every thing town has to offer. So she begrudgingly lets him tag long to decide up the cake in Flatbush.
“This is not a spiritual journey,” Robin insists.
Spoiler alert: It is.
Sam Tutty is making a must-see New York debut. Matthew Murphy
Dougal sees every thing — from his bedbug-infested hostel, to a cool hat on the subway, to a boiled hotdog — with childlike wonderment. As the snow falls, Robin, as emotionally calloused as any New Yorker, begins to soften.
What elevates the show from an assembly-line rom-com is the best way Barne and Buchan steadiness the style’s baked-in cliches with sharp left turns and nuanced commentary about life expertise and personal connection. “Two Strangers” ain’t packing snow, but it’s not powder either.
The musical comes dangerously close to cloying sentimentality at occasions, but Dougal’s dry sense of humor and Tutty’s first-class supply prevents the story from ever getting too soupy.
As Robin, Christiani Pitts has the more flamboyant function. Matthew Murphy
That’s a problem as the rating is virtually a soup kitchen of watered-down Broadway pop ballads with an occasional “The Tango Maureen”-style tune for laughs. This is the uncommon musical where the songs are vastly outshone by the ebook.
Next to Dougal, Robin is the less flamboyant function with one too many personal problems. She retains her playing cards close to the vest, and the susceptible Pitts brings on the waterworks as Robin’s hardened exterior begins to crack.
Yet it’s Tutty the group walks out onto forty eighth Street buzzing about. You’ve just gotta see him carry this cake. The child’s acquired layers.
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