Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) is a British musical by Jim Barne and Kit Buchan. The play was first produced in 2019 in Ipswich and Northampton, starring Tori Allen-Martin and Alex Cardall.[1] A new production opened at Kiln Theatre in 2023, starring Dujonna Gift and Sam Tutty. In April 2024, it transferred to the Criterion Theatre in the West End.[2]
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Under its previous title The Season, the show received a Stage Debut Award and the Stiles & Drewe Mentorship prize.[3][4]
In November 2023, David Jays, writing for The Guardian, gave the play four out of five stars, noting that it "matches its wide-eyed hero and sardonic heroine with just the right mix of sugar and sour".[5]
In The Observer, the writer Kate Kellaway gave the show five stars, calling it "fresh, funny, ironic, inventive and moving" and describing the production as "flawless."[9]
Also in November 2023, The Telegraph's Marianka Swain wrote, "Jim Barne and Kit Buchan's heartfelt musical two-hander has all the ingredients to be an irresistibly sweet treat for the festive season".[10]
Clive Davis of The Times wrote: "What a tantalising near miss. This journey is bumpier, played out on the designer Soutra Gilmour’s revolving pile of suitcases. Like the Hollywood references, the set is something of a distraction, and the four-piece band perched above the actors lack firepower. The songs are fine; the script doesn’t quite do them justice."[11]
Although Time Out magazine provided a detailed synopsis of the show, giving it four stars out of five, it did state that "the first half is about 15 minutes too long, and [it thought] Dougal could be a grating character in the hands of a less winning actor than Tutty."[12]