Exclusive: Jim Barne & Kit Buchan Explain How a Lifelong Friendship Led to TWO STRANGERS (CARRY A CAKE ACROSS NEW YORK)
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) stars Christiani Pitts and Sam Tutty.
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) is now in its sixth month on Broadway, and two of the people behind the musical are creators Jim Barne and Kit Buchan.
"One thing that you're told when you start writing musicals, is that every character needs something called an 'I Want' song," explained Buchan "The reason we struggled with that is because Jim and I, when we were in our twenties, didn't really know what we wanted or where we were going. And that was also true of most people we knew. We had this idea that we might be able to write a show about two people who didn't have clarity of their ambitions and didn't really know where they were going, and also maybe were stuck in a story or in a pattern that was not totally fruitful for them.
"I feel like the proudest achievement of my life is the sense that this musical has been embraced by New Yorkers. The only reason for that is because it has taken numerous New Yorkers to help us with that and to invest profound influence into this musical. Whatever version of New York is there on stage is legitimate, and I'm so proud of that."
"The people who were working on the show are just so brilliant and it was, as you say, incredibly humbling," added Barne. "It's often quite hard to appreciate your own work apart from anything. We've been working on the show for about 10 years now. When other people come and inject energy and creativity into the show, it's really magical. You can fall in love with the show again. That was our experience."
Watch in this video as they chat more about the evolution of their creative partnership.
