In the opening scene of “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York),” lifelong New Yorker Robin gets to see her hometown through the eyes of an outsider. Cardboard sign in hand, she meets Dougal, a young Brit, at the airport, who’s arrived in town for his estranged father’s wedding to Robin’s sister. Before you know it, the pair are en route to Manhattan and Dougal is belting out his excitement for the Big Apple in a catchy pop-song tribute to the city.
Costars Sam Tutty and Christiani Pitts have moved well beyond the strangers stage as Broadway costars. The show has a two-person cast, and the pair share the stage for practically the entire runtime.
The new musical lands on Broadway after a well-received run in London’s West End, followed by a production in Cambridge, Mass., this past summer. “ Which was so low key compared to this,” says Pitts, who starred in the Stateside production along with Tutty, who began the Dougal role in London. “ The stakes are higher in a lot of beautiful ways,” adds Pitts. “But because we got to work things out in Cambridge, the show feels like it’s finally home.”
It’s a literal homecoming for the show, which despite debuting in Massachusetts, has a New York-centric plot that takes the characters all around the city: to Canal Street, to Flushing Avenue in Brooklyn, to Fifth Avenue and the Plaza Hotel. And that’s just in the first act.
“ People keep saying how they left the show feeling like a warm hug,” says Pitts. “It’s so funny, because I haven’t really heard anybody describe New York that way. And it’s interesting to hear New Yorkers call the show a warm hug, because I like to think it’s a reminder of how romantic the city actually is and can be, and how cozy it can be when you step outside of it for a while.”
Christiani Pitts
Courtesy of Ogata
Pitts, originally from the South, lived in New York for 10 years as a young adult and recently moved back ahead of the Broadway run. Despite her previous decade in the city, she describes herself as a “fake New Yorker” — but, for the record, is wearing a Yankees hat off-season.
“ I started singing when I was very little in the church choir,” says Pitts, who’s the daughter of TV news journalists and grew up in New Jersey and Atlanta. “Two things happened when I was a kid that I was like, ‘oh, this is it.’ The first thing is I got my first solo in church, and I remember what it felt like to sing by myself and have people respond positively. That was very affirming,” she adds. “And then in that same church a few years later, we did a Nativity play. I was like, ‘cow number three’ or something, and I had my cow costume and I had a little tail and you would’ve thought I was Baby Jesus or I was Mary. It didn’t matter who I was on that stage. I felt so alive.”
She went on to major in theater at Florida State University, and made her Broadway debut in 2017 in “A Bronx Tale,” followed by a lead role in “King Kong” in 2018. “Two Strangers” marks Pitts’ first time back on stage since becoming a mother three years ago.
“Something I took away from the pandemic when everything had to shut down, is just how grateful I am to be doing this as a career, because it’s been my compass in life since I was a child,” she adds. “It is my greatest joy.”
Moving beyond opening night, Pitts is excited to continue sharing the show with audiences, which she describes as the “third cast member.”
“They are very vocal, which is very cool because we know that they’re with us,” she says. “There’s so much laughter, which I think is beautiful. And then when we get to the stage door, we interact with people who’ve seen the show, and they then tell us how much they cried.”
While the show highlights the joy of being in New York, it also highlights a familiar flip side: feeling aimless in the city. Pitts adds that many audience members have felt kinship with her character, a café worker who is getting through the days but not quite thriving or sure what she wants to do next.
“[Audiences] are really thankful that there’s these regular people up there that aren’t doing anything extraordinary, but they’re just trying to get through life,” says Pitts. “And people at the stage door are like, ‘oh, I didn’t realize how good it was to see other people doing the best they can with the everyday mundane tasks that they have, that some days feel impossible.’”
