Sam Tutty and Christiani Pitts Are Ready To Take New York By Storm

It has been quite the improbable journey for Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York)—the little musical that could.

“Never in my wildest dreams,” proclaimed Sam Tutty, who has co-starred in Jim Barnes & Kit Buchan’s sweetly melancholic work since its off-West End premiere at the 292-seat Kiln Theatre back in 2023. Buoyed by critical acclaim, the intimate rom-com swiftly moved to the Criterion Theatre for an extended West End run. 

Two Strangers built up a passionate fan base, and so a pre-Broadway tryout at Cambridge’s American Repertory Theater quickly followed. For the Stateside run, Tutty—an Olivier Award-winner for Dear Evan Hansen—was joined by the gloriously talented Christiani Pitts, best known to New York audiences as Ann Darrow in the big-budget musical adaptation of King Kong. 

This fall, that same charming duo are bringing this heartwarming two-hander to Broadway. Two Strangers begins performances at the Longacre Theatre on November 1, ahead of a November 20 opening. Tutty plays Dougal, an impossibly upbeat Brit visiting New York for his dad’s second wedding; while Pitts plays Robin, the sister of the bride, who is tasked with picking Dougal up from the airport. 

We spoke with Pitts and Tutty on Zoom about all the important things: complex Lego sets, dusty Olivier Award trophies, and the importance of championing original stories.

Theatrely: For each of you, how did it feel to get the news that Two Strangers was officially transferring to Broadway?

CHRISTIANI PITTS: Oh, I was so happy. I was with my two-year-old, and we just started crying happy tears and celebrating. I sang a song from the show, and she joined in. 

SAM TUTTY: I never in my wildest dreams expected this to happen, mainly because I just thought the industry wasn’t as giving with original work. To get here from such humble beginnings, it’s just so fantastic. 

Sam has been attached to the show for a while now. Christiani, how did you get involved for the Cambridge run?

CHRISTIANI: I auditioned a month or so before the beginning of the A.R.T. run. It was all so fast. I got to meet Sam at the callback, and we really hit it off. But I still didn’t know, and I didn’t want to get my hopes up.

SAM: I seen it coming.

CHRISTIANI: Robin is in such an in-between place in her life, which I really identified with. It was so cool to get a character who isn’t finished. She doesn’t have this big shiny thing that she’s looking for. She’s just in-process. That was so interesting to me.

Sam, did you find that the experience of doing the show changed at all once you were opposite Christiani? 

SAM: One hundred percent. I remember having a moment of panic on the plane over like, “Is this a good idea, am I just going to repeat myself?” And then I got there, and Christina opened her mouth, and I was like: “Oh, this is a completely different show.” Christiani brings such a different flavor, which is just so fun, new and grounded. 

CHRISTIANI: I was so intimidated. Here is this man who has done this show before, and done it beautifully, and who has this incredible well-deserved accolade to his name.

[Tutty turns to show off his Olivier Award, sitting on a windowsill behind him in the Zoom frame]

CHRISTIANI: See what I’m saying?

SAM: I carry it around my neck like a keychain.

CHRISTIANI: At the first table read he put it down on my script.

SAM: Uh huh, yep.

CHRISTIANI: So yes, very scared, very intimidated. But that quickly went away because of his openness and willingness to put everything he’d learned aside so that we could have a fresh experience.

SAM: I’d just forgotten it all.

Dougal is such a sincere and open-hearted character. He has a bit of Golden Retriever energy. Sam, how did your approach to the character change for the Cambridge run?

SAM: It used to be one American character in a room full of British people. Now it had become a single Brit in a room full of Americans. So the way that I’m attacking a line was turned almost completely on its head. For me, the comedy of it became less performative, and less animated. This is genuinely my truth, and I [Dougal] do not find it funny. I’m telling you with my whole heart how I feel. And that is then the joke. 

Dougal seems so open at first, and he’s immediately prodding Robin to confess her innermost desires and secrets. But as she pushes back a bit, we realize that he’s asking for more than he’s truly giving.

CHRISTIANI: In Robin’s experience, you’re out of your mind to ask somebody that kind of personal shit right off the bat. She’s like, “I’ve known you for thirty-five seconds!” But then as we investigate these two people, we realize that they both have these protective mechanisms. ‘Cause then when Robin tries to offer Dougal that same courtesy of getting to know his inner thoughts, he pushes it away. He’s completely avoiding everything too—they both are.

Right, at the moment these two people meet, they both have so much to work through. There’s some sadness and loneliness underneath the rom-com lightness. Do you two think of them as broken people?

SAM: There’s certainly something missing or lost within them. The show is about two people helping each other, or guiding each other, to the person they need to be. Robin has to pull back the curtain a bit on Robin; and Dougal has to give Robin a safe space, for once in her life. 

Now that you’re coming to New York, will you retrace Dougal and Robin’s actual journey around the city? I don’t know if it would actually be logistically possible.

SAM: We’ll make it work.

CHRISTIANI: We did kinda try, when we were shooting promo. But it was like 95 degrees, and we were wearing our show costumes. A show that is set in the winter.

SAM: I lost like twenty pounds that day.

CHRISTIANI: But it was informative. When we were in Brooklyn, there were so many beautiful Black people walking all around us. In rehearsals we would talk a lot about young Robin—what was she like, what did she look like? At one point we saw this little Black girl and her mom, and she got her beads, and she’s like bouncing across the street, and we screamed: “That’s Robin!” And then you see Dougal—you see Sam—this sweet little white British man, amongst all these Black people…

SAM: I’m home!

CHRISTIANI: It just made sense. It was like, “This is the New York I always wanted to come to.” 

‍What most excites you about bringing the show to New York?

CHRISTIANI: I’m excited for this show to come home, in a sense. And I’m excited for people to get a little bit of joy. I find it hard to even promote the show, because the world is very dark right now.

SAM: For me, it’s just being involved in a show that dares to be about two very unimportant people. Never did I expect this show to have the lifespan that it did.

CHRISTIANI: His Broadway debut! That Olivier throws you off, but this is his Broadway debut.

SAM: You should see all the dust I blew off [the Olivier]. It’s tired. It’s like, “Do something else.”

Will you be bringing the Olivier over?

SAM: I have to, legally. It’s contracted that I have to bring it with me everywhere. But my main feat right now is this Lego, actually.

[Sam turns to proudly show off a fully built Lego jungle set on the desk behind him]

CHRISTIANI: See, you see shit like that and you’re like, “Are you even acting, or are you just Dougal?”

SAM: It’s why I’m still involved in the show, man. Nobody else is going to degrade themselves like this.

Theatrely’s 2025 Fall Preview is sponsored by Stage Door Pass. Track the shows you see and share your experience. To learn more, visit here.