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.
Then there’s the acting, singing and brief dancing. Pitts’s performance, especially svelte and stylish in Gilmour’s night-at-the-Plaza gown, is mercurial throughout, making Robin’s initial annoyance and then intelligent concern thoroughly penetrating. As to newcomer Tutty, who took home last year’s Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his take on the imported Dear Evan Hansen: His “New York” introduction makes it dazzlingly clear that a London musical leading-man hasn’t been carried in on the local theater tide since Tommy Steele in Half a Sixpence and Anthony Newley in The Roar of the Greasepaint-The Smell of the Crowd. Tutty’s appealing looks, pure voice, comic instincts, and obvious acting skills, and somehow resemblance to a living Teletubby make him the huge plus for a vital Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) run.
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.
| 2024 | West End |
West End |
| 2025 | Boston |
Boston |
| 2025 | Broadway |
Broadway |
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