Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) ★★★★

If a show’s title promises a “meet cute”, it had better deliver. The preciously titled Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) succeeds in satisfying that requirement, and then some. But is cuteness enough? For many it will be, but given the lightness of the material, a more fitting dessert for the two strangers to haul across the Big Apple might be a meringue.

Still, a yummy dessert has its place on the grand menu of Broadway offerings, and this new musical by Jim Barne and Kit Buchan will satisfy most patrons who partake of its genteel offerings.

The major reason to see Two Strangers is to revel in the excellent performances of the actors playing the titular duo, Christiani Pitts and Sam Tutty. Tutty plays Dougal, an overly excited Englishman who is thrilled to be visiting New York for the first time to attend his father’s wedding. Pitts plays hardened city native Robin, the sister of the bride-to-be who’s tasked with meeting Dougal at the airport and depositing him at his fleabag hotel on Canal Street.

As is the way with rom-coms, their story kicks off when Dougal mistakenly crashes into Robin at JFK. Once they each realize who the other is, we’re off to the races. Or the subway, which Dougal is far too excited about for someone who purports to call New York his second home: “Ah. The subway. Love it.”

Turns out Dougal’s experience of the city is limited thus far to everything he’s gleaned from movies, especially Home Alone 2. “New York”, the show’s opening number (and one of its best), wittily captures his naïve exuberance:

“My town:

where everyone has an apartment to spare with a skyline view, where even improbable dreams come true.

Where everything comes with a smile, a high five and a side of cheese; I’m down on my knees…”

Once Robin drops Dougal off at his hotel, in quick succession the show makes clear its characters’ desires with two “I want” numbers that, along with ‘New York’, high school drama teachers will be hearing at auditions from now until time immemorial: ‘Dad‘, Dougal’s affectionate ballad about a father he barely knows, and ‘What’ll It Be‘, an existential wonderment that Robin sings the following morning as she serves up cappuccinos and lattes at a cafe job she likes well enough but knows holds no great future for her:

“And you smile

as the morning crowd arrives day after day,

year after year, and you watch

as they go about their lives while you stay here…”

This being a rom-com, the two strangers aren’t separated for long. Dougal shows up at the cafe and eventually convinces Robin that she needs his help to pick up the official wedding cake in Brooklyn, so back on the trains they go to gather the gâteau. For the next 24 hours or so, as they face unexpected challenges both personal and familial, Robin and Dougal have an ongoing adventure that ensures they will no longer be strangers to each other.

Two Strangers is occasionally thin in its ambitions but never less than endearing. It succeeds thanks to surprise twists and turns in a story that could all too easily feel overly familiar, along with an appealing score performed by its pair of affable, first-rate performers.

Best known for originating the role of Ann Darrow in the musicalized King Kong that lumbered on Broadway in 2018, Pitts now returns in another show set primarily in the Big Apple; fortunately, this time she escapes being hauled up the side of the Empire State Building. No longer having to compete with a giant puppet, Pitts here gets to show a great deal more emotional range and comedic timing. Robin is also the trickier, more mysterious part, one that Pitts makes complex but never off-putting.

Beat by beat, she’s perfectly matched by the wide-eyed Tutty, who is making an ace Broadway debut after having previously won an Olivier as the troubled, cast-wearing teen in the West End’s Dear Evan Hanson. Tutty may be a dead ringer for Ed Sheeran, but that slight distraction dies quickly because Tutty’s got a distinct personality with a charm quotient that’s off the charts. He’s hilarious and winning from start to finish.

Director and choreographer Tim Jackson keeps all the entertaining city escapades zipping along, but even so the show stretches a bit too long, especially the second act, which still leaves a few questions hanging. More heft is needed to warrant the show’s two-hour running time. The desire for a bit more edge is cemented when, near the end of the show, Robin and Dougal sing a song titled ‘Dearly Beloved‘. Those words immediately brought to mind the start of the ecstatic ‘La Vie Bohème‘, the act-one closer from Rent, another musical that has an energetic number in a Lower East Side restaurant.

The denizens of Rent face far higher stakes in a much grittier New York City, elements of which Two Strangers could likely benefit. But perhaps the comparison is unfair. Times have changed; transport those bohemians from Rent to the modern era and they would very likely be making a killing as social media influencers or OnlyFans models. Moreover, Two Strangers is a gentler, kinder work, one that feels very much like a show built for the TikTok generation.

And while the world right now too often feels upside down, one could do far worse than benefit from the kindness of strangers. Romance goes beyond this show’s two vulnerable characters to extend to the city itself. At the show’s end, creators Barne and Buchan beautifully capture that magical moment when a person’s view of the world suddenly changes with the first feelings of love:

“Is it me, has it changed; has the city rearranged?

is there something new and strange about this street?”

Oh, l’amour. Welcome home.