How Christiani Pitts & Sam Tutty Are Carrying a Show (and a Cake) to Broadway

How many strangers does it take to carry a cake across New York? Apparently just two if the new musical heading into the Longacre Theatre is to be believed! 

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) is an original new musical comedy about timing, connections, and unexpected detours. Meet Dougal, an impossibly upbeat Brit who has just landed in New York City for the first time to attend the wedding of the father he’s never met. Meet Robin, the sister of the bride and a no-nonsense New Yorker with a lot of errands to run—including picking up the groom’s estranged son from the airport. These two strangers begin their journey together, navigating New York City, secrets, and second chances. 

The strangers friends leading the new musical are Christiani Pitts (King Kong, A Bronx Tale) and Sam Tutty, who (along with the show's creators) is making his Broadway debut. The duo checked in with BroadwayWorld to tell us all about how excited they are to continue their journey to Broadway.

You have a little bit of time before rehearsals get going. Are you so excited to get back at it?

CP: I'm so excited. I kind of wish we would just start because I'm getting like antsy about it.

ST: I'm forgetting words already.

CP: No you're not! We met up in London to do something for the show not too long ago and he started to recite some of the show. Just hearing him say it, I was like, " Oh god. I actually don't remember it!" It's got to get back in my brain. 

The characters are written so well, I think that they're real people. So it's easy to like hop in their shoes because it's not too far of a stretch. 

Let's talk about your characters. What you love about playing them.

ST: It's just fun because of the choices you can make on stage. It goes for most performers really, but because they're two normal people - they're not defined by some great movement or some sort of profound storyline, it's something that could happen to anyone. It's about two human beings - the choices that I can make onstage can make it so different. Something as small as a little cough or just scratching your nose... we open that naturalism with open arms. I'm just really excited just to explore the full, subtle, defined human nature of these two people all over again. 

CP: My favorite part about Robin is that she has these callbacks to who she was as a child. She's so far removed from it, like a lot of us are as adults. You don't realize how important it is to connect with who you were and what you used to want- that passion. I think that's my favorite part about the character, and maybe selfishly, because I'm experiencing that in my own life right now with like getting to re-experience my childhood through [my daughter]. I'm just obsessed with the fact that this person has these callbacks to who she once was. She's such a dope human being. And it feels so real. I feel so excited to play her. I felt like that since the time I read the script. 

Collaboration is such a huge part of any theater piece and you guys have such a special thing going because it's just the two of you on stage. What is it like working with each other? What have you learned about each other through all the time you've spent working on this together?

ST: I think the main part of any process, big or small, is the trust that you have and how safe a space is. It sounds very obvious, I suppose, but I think this industry can cultivate such interestingly unsafe or volatile environments at times. And frustratingly, the work that we do can be limited by that. But for this show, from the get-go it's just been such a fun, safe, and I don't want to say unserious, because we are both very committed to doing a good job with this. I think is important in a rom-com as well because the whole genre surrounds itself in silliness and with real powerful and grounding moments. 

This environment has been very important for me specifically. I hate working under pressure.. I'm always one minute away from peeing my pants. It's such a polar opposite of experience here with Christiani. She is so fantastic and so serious about her work, but also, it's prefaced by the idea that we're not saving lives here. I think we have a similar dynamic. It's called a play for a reason you know! We're playing! 

CP: There's so much trust happening with Sam, of course, and also with the standbys, Vinny and Phoenix as well. Trust is such a good word, Sam. And we built these beautiful friendships outside of the characters, that fine tuning the distance between us became more of the challenge. Then getting close, that came so naturally. To go back and figure out how to be enemies and how to be strangers was a really fun challenge. 

We had so much fun in the rehearsal process that there are some really heavy and serious moments in the show that we don't really talk about. They're not really advertised. So I noticed while we were in rehearsal, we would have some vulnerable moments. Tears would be shared and I don't know about you Sam, but I would feel like, "Sorry to bring the mood down!" It feels heavy for me, but I got the reassurance of our director and my scene partner of "No, no, it's okay. We got you!" It's ok for us to go there. I never feel like I'm taking it so far. I get to feel the lows and highs of the show. 

Sam, you're going to be making your Broadway debut.

ST: I was having a think about this the other day. It's sort of strange because my relationship with this whole industry is so interesting because I've not had a very conventional start at all. My plan was to just work in a coffee shop and then just throw stuff of the wall and see what's stuck really. I got quite lucky. And my luck for some bizarre unknown reason is continuing at such a ridiculously high concentrated level! I never auditioned for a Broadway show! It's very strange to know that if I got this in and it was going to Broadway, I think I would have a very different relationship with it. I've had this wonderful relationship with the show in England and then me and Christiani got to be able to do this process in Boston where we know in our heart of hearts that we took it for the work, not for the promise of coming to Broadway. 

I'm so proud to end up with the show, but I'm more happy for everybody else getting this opportunity. To be able to do this work with our creative team is a fantastic thing in its own right, but then to be able to then go to the pub and look forward to that with them... it's like I'm having a drink with my friends. It goes back to the whole luck situation. Not only is this well-deserved show going to Broadway, but I get to do it with people who I call friends now. And it's a very surreal experience. 

And Christiani, you're going back to the Longacre, which should feel like some kind of home, right?

CP: Yes, it is home. It's where I made my Broadway debut with some incredible human beings. Sam and I, were in New York and I just wanted to show him the Longacre. Mind you, we didn't know about a Broadway transfer, let alone that it would be there. 

But it really is home. They had some really legendary stagehands who really cared about Broadway. My friend Nick Cordero had his dressing room down on the first floor, which is where I always go between cues because we had a lot of time offstage. He's no longer with us, so even knowing that his energy is in that space and feels like the biggest blessing. 

Two Strangers has been my first time back on stage in a while because I had such a wild ride with my last Broadway show, [King Kong]. Physically, it was very dangerous and scary for me in a lot of ways. I didn't realize it, but I was scared to go back on stage. And then this beautiful show comes and it's so safe. Now to be in the Longacre again, like I feel like I can return that favor. 

What do you think will surprise audiences the most?

ST: I think the writers and the director have dared to put on and make a show that doesn't present or announce itself to people. I don't know... like some massive moment's gonna come. And there are massive moments in the show, but it surrounds still two people. It's daring the audience to watch just two people. My favorite part about this show is the relationship between us and the audience. 

CP: I think people will also be surprised by the fact that they have so much fun. There will be a lot of expectations because it's just the two of us. And I think people leave shocked that they went on such a journey. People care a lot and have so many questions about the other characters in this story that they never see. And that often surprises people because they'll say, "I just knew he was coming out!" And so I think people are also surprised by the fact that there's only two people on stage, but there's such a world outside of these two characters. 

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) will begin previews at the Longacre Theatre on November 1 and will open on November 20, 2025.

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