When Two Strangers Click: Sam Tutty and Christiani Pitts Find a Spark on Broadway

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), now playing at the Longacre Theatre, features Sam Tutty and Christiani Pitts at the center of a musical that’s equal parts rom-com and emotional reckoning.

For Tutty, best known for his Olivier-winning turn in London’s Dear Evan Hansen, the journey has been an unexpected one. “I didn’t audition for this show to go on Broadway,” he said. “It was meant to be six weeks at the Kiln in North London, and that was going to be the end of it, and it just kept changing and people wanted more of it, and I’m just so honored that they wanted it, and I just don’t really have, it’s just surreal.”

The show was written by the songwriting team of Jim Barne and Kit Buchan, who have been friends since childhood. “We’re both massive pop apologists,” Barne said. “We were in a band together and basically what we listen to now is pop, and so when Timmy Jackson decided that what he wanted was for the show to sound like a pop score, we were delighted.” Buchan added, “The actors are never off, not for a second, and when you come and see it, you’ll see it is the most raw performance from both of them. The energy and the passion and the tension that they’re able to sustain over that period, just the two of them, it’s amazing.”

Pitts, who made her Broadway debut in A Bronx Tale and went on to headline King Kong, was instantly drawn to the project. She describes it as “about these two normal people who are going through very normal things. These two people help each other find happiness again in a place where they didn’t think it existed anymore.”

Director Tim Jackson’s staging amplifies that intimacy with a revolving set by Soutra Gilmour that mirrors the constant motion of New York. “It’s a playground for Sam and Christiani to let loose and they really let loose,” he said. “It’s about two strangers who are thrust into each other’s orbits, and they might seemingly think they wouldn’t necessarily get on because they have different personalities. At the core of it, they find a shared humanity and a shared joy and end up having the most incredible adventure together.”

For Pitts, that’s the feeling she hopes audiences carry home. “For two hours they can escape and laugh till their belly hurts, and then take that and spread that out to the rest of the world,” she said.

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) officially opens at the Longacre Theatre on November 20.

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