Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York) is a really fun, heart-warming musical. It’s a romantic comedy musical, with just two characters throughout. With great music, amazing acting and a beautiful story, this is a musical you’ll remember for a long time. Here’s my Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York) theatre review.
Overview of Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York)
Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York) is a fairly new musical in London’s West End. It’s a romantic comedy musical, which is both funny and moving. I completely loved this show and haven’t stopped listening to the soundtrack since getting home. So my Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York) theatre review is super positive!
Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York) follows the story of Robin and Dougal. Dougal is a super enthusiastic, upbeat 25 year old from the UK. He’s travelling to New York for his father’s wedding. But he’s never actually met his father before – he just received an invitation to the wedding and decided to go. In New York, Dougal is met by Robin. Robin is the sister of Dougal’s Dad’s new bride. Robin has been asked by her sister to meet Dougal, and also to run a few last minute errands for the wedding. And one of these errands is collecting the wedding cake. Hence, the title ‘Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York)’.
At first, Robin is reserved and irritated by Dougal’s enthusiasm for everything. But gradually, Robin starts to open up. We learn more about Robin’s character and her past. And we all fall more and more in love with Dougal’s puppy-like enthusiasm. The two start to develop friendship, and then something more. But revelations about their past threaten to ruin the new relationship they’re forming. I won’t give any more plot spoilers – the show is really easy to follow, and more enjoyable if I leave a few surprises.
What I liked about Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York)
I really loved Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York). It’s up there in my favourite musicals of all time. I loved the chemistry between the two actors. It’s unusual for a West End musical to have only two characters, and only two people on stage throughout the whole show. There wasn’t much set either – just two piles of suitcases on the stage. But it just shows how great these two actors are, and how great their chemistry is, that they could keep an audience enthralled for nearly 2.5 hours with no extra actors and few props. Their quick fire one-liners, and the amusing lines, and the perfect combination of their contrasting characters, all worked perfectly.
I loved Dougal’s charming enthusiasm. So many of his lines were so funny. And I really warmed to Robin as well, especially after her first solo song when we started to find out a bit more about her. At first I thought I preferred Dougal, but after getting to know Robin more, I loved both characters equally.
Music and character development
I loved the music in the show as well. There’s one song in particular that I’ve been listening to on repeat since seeing the show – called ‘If I Believed’. It’s one of those uplifting musical songs towards the end of the show. The two characters climbed to the top of the two piles of suitcases (the only set on the stage), and the stage rotated as they sang. It was just one of those moments in a musical that brings tears to my eyes. It reminded me of my favourite scene in another of my favourite musicals, The Little Big Things, where the actors sing as they’re raised up high and spin around. It’s a classic musical moment, but always wins me over.
I loved the character development throughout the show, especially for Robin. She started off seeming very reserved and fed up. She didn’t want to be babysitting Dougal in New York, and she was fed up with the wedding and life in general. But I loved seeing her open up and have fun more as the show progressed. I found I really identified with her – a woman struggling to find her place in the world, and struggling to find herself. But seeing her smile and laugh and let herself have fun was wonderful to see, and a reminder to myself to be more like that.
I also really liked that this show didn’t have the ‘traditional’ happy ending. Spoiler alert – the two don’t actually end up together. They have a lovely final song, but then Dougal has to go back to the UK and Robin stays in New York. I like that the ending felt realistic, and one character wasn’t suddenly going to move halfway across the world after meeting someone for two days. The ending was still filled with hope and optimism that this would be the start of something better for both characters, which was really lovely.
What I wasn’t so sure about
I don’t think there was anything about this show that I didn’t like. I really loved it all – apart from one small plot point that I thought wasn’t necessary. Spoiler alert – I didn’t really like the idea that Robin had slept with the Dad. It felt a bit weird, now she was with Dougal. I get it was a useful plot point to cause them to have a big argument that they could then resolve. But to be honest, I think they could have chosen a different reason for an argument and not had this plot point.
Maybe one criticism someone could have is that you have to really listen and focus to fully enjoy all the jokes. A lot of the lines are delivered quite quickly with subtle humour – so you have to be paying attention to make sure you catch everything they’re saying. That wasn’t an issue for me, but I can imagine some people might have found some of the dialogue a bit hard to follow completely. But I loved it, and it was clear that most of the audience also enjoyed it. As well as the two characters being funny, it’s also funny to hear when a random audience member suddenly bursts out laughing out loud at a small thing in the show, because it obviously meant something to them. And then that makes the rest of the audience laugh more as well.
Would I recommend Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York)
I would 100% recommend going to see Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York). I loved the story and the chemistry between the characters and the music. It was a show that still makes me smile. I’d love to see it again.
Hope you enjoyed my Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York) theatre review! Check out my other theatre reviews for more shows in the West End, across the UK and the world.
