A CAKEWALK THROUGH NEW YORK
The delightfully poignant and gorgeously hilarious West End hit Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) by Jim Barne and Kit Buchan made its North American premiere tonight at American Repertory Theater—and it’s not to be missed. Directed and choreographed by Tim Jackson from the original London production, this full-length two-hander musical is a tribute to the power of imagination and a love song to New York, or rather to a wide-eyed Brit’s inaccurate view of New York City. Dougal (a giddy, infectiously delightful Sam Tutty from the original London cast) is, in the words of world-weary Robin (Christiani Pitts, sarcastic yet vulnerable), “a lot like a Golden Retriever, but with fewer boundaries.”
photo by Nile Scott Studios and Maggie Hall
“Is it possible to use the word ‘ingenue’ to describe a male actor?” my companion asked during the intermission. I don’t know, but I will do it now—Dougal is very much an ingenue. He’s never been to New York before, but he’s seen Home Alone 2 several times, as well as numerous other films set in the city (which he quotes from liberally and with different accents), and yet he’s not quite clear on the difference between the City of Angels and Tinsel Town and Soul Town or between Times Square and Queens. But he’s in New York for two days to attend the wedding of his father, a man he has never actually met, and he’s bursting with excitement and already in love with a city he imagines, just as he is excited to begin a relationship with the father he imagines. His opening “New York” number, full of yearning and misconceptions, full of clever rapidly-delivered film references, is a likely competitor to “Empire State of Mind” and so many other great anthems to the city.
photo by Nile Scott Studios and Maggie Hall
Sent to meet him at the airport and accompany him into the city on the subway (which Dougal loves!) is Robin, sister of the bride, who is being dispatched to run multiple errands, including picking up a $2,000 wedding cake in Brooklyn and transporting it to her sister’s Manhattan apartment building. Robin, a Black New Yorker who grew up in Brooklyn, informs Dougal that she has never been to the Statue of Liberty nor to the numerous other tourist sites Dougal imagines they will visit together. Robin’s life, in fact, is very different from what Dougal imagines the life of a typical New Yorker to be—she waits on customers at the Bump ‘n’ Grind coffee shop and lives her life in a kind of holding pattern beautifully expressed in “What’ll It Be,” a song that poignantly shifts standard customer service lines into an expression of the ways in which she is waiting to find out what will happen next in her own life.
photo by Joel Zayac
Dougal struggles to define his relationship to this woman who fascinates him in so many ways, this woman who is the younger sister of the 30-year-old woman who is about to marry his 57-year-old father. Is Robin his sister? His sister-in-law? He finally settles on Aunt, and both amuses and annoys Robin by calling her Aunty Robin. Robin explains that New York is only the city of your dreams if you have money, but eventually Dougal’s innocent love for New York, or what he imagines New York to be, melts Robin’s defenses and the two of them spend the December evening before the wedding ice-skating at Rockefeller Center and then use Robin’s future brother-in-law’s American Express card (given to her so she can pay for the $2000 cake) to buy a tux and a gown and a room at the Plaza.
photo by Nile Scott Studios and Maggie Hall
But a poignancy hovers over Robin’s efforts to enjoy her home city with Dougal. As the show nears its end, a casually tossed-off, seemingly throwaway line offers the key to Robin’s difficult relationship to her sister and shatters Dougal’s illusions about his father.
photo by Nile Scott Studios and Maggie Hall
All this is beautifully performed on a rotating stage piled high with monochromatic luggage pieces (Soutra Gilmour, costume and scenic design), some of which periodically open to transform into a coffee shop counter, a closet, a hotel mini-bar, or seats on a subway train. Tutty, Olivier-winner for the role of Evan Hansen, wins gasps for his startling and perfectly executed on-stage costume change into a tux as well as his acrobatic dancing. An outstanding score is provided by musicians on guitars, percussion, and keyboard silhouetted on a mezzanine at the back of the stage, which furthers the sense of intimacy in this small but improbably expansive production, a show that somehow encapsulates not only all of New York City but all the dreams and disappointments it represents.
photo by Joel Zayac
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University
Loeb Drama Center in Harvard Square, 64 Brattle St in Cambridge
two hours and ten minutes with intermission
ends on July 13, 2025
for tickets (from $35), visit A.R.T.
for more shows, visit Theatre in Boston
