Interview: Kit Buchan and Jim Barne Share Christmas Rom-Com Inspiration for Two Strangers

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) has some of the best holiday vibes in the city right now. Starring Sam Tutty as Dougal and Christiani Pitts as Robin, the story follows two strangers who quickly realize they have an unexpected connection—and errands to run—in the stressful winter wonderland that is NYC in December.

“From the very beginning we knew it was going to be set in New York,” says co-writer Kit Buchan (book and lyrics). “The first comedy number we wrote was set in New York. It’s like a very sentimental Christmas romantic duet, kind of inspired by romantic comedies. And then that kind of snowballed into wanting to draw on the old movies and put two very different characters together in New York.”

The show has well received in the UK, where it premiered, before heading to Boston and then to Broadway. “It never felt possible,” Buchan says. “If we’d believed it was Broadway-bound, we’d have been paralyzed by fear.”

Buchan and co-writer Jim Barne (music and lyrics) spoke with TheaterMania about the “originating ambition” of the show and the key to working with one of your childhood best friends.

The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

How did this show first begin to take shape?
Kit Buchan: We had been thinking about writing a musical, and we’d written a comedy Christmas number for a cabaret, and the director of that cabaret encouraged us to write more Christmas material. So we started writing more Christmas numbers, and they began to sort of assemble into a plot.

And what about the music?
Jim Barne: I think the first couple of songs are probably cut now, but they started off as Christmas songs. We wanted to draw from different influences of the Christmas canon. And then the songs took on a new sound when our orchestrator Lux Pyramid came onboard, because he’s a pop orchestrator. So things that had sounded quite traditional suddenly started to sound a little bit more poppy and contemporary. That’s probably where the final version of the show started to form.

Why New York?
Kit: It just exerts this immense gravity over the rest of the world. And that’s not just from the movies, although I guess the movies are the predominant force. There’s no other city where somebody who’d never been there could claim a deep understanding of it, albeit wrongly. You couldn’t do that with Rio de Janeiro or Moscow or even London.

Musicals often traffic in huge plot points, but yours gives weight to smaller emotional beats. Was that intentional from the beginning?
Kit: That was an originating ambition of the show; like a wager: Is it possible to write a musical that’s no less emotional than a musical about big events, but zoomed in enough in the lives of ordinary people that maybe there could be a greater recognition as well as a sort of empathy for people who maybe don’t feel that they’re having an enormous impact in the world?

The show has evolved quite a bit since 2019. What have been the biggest changes?
Jim: Probably 2023 when it came to London, we did a big rewrite and changed the title. But when it came to Boston at the beginning of this year, we really reshuffled a lot of stuff and rewrote a number of the songs. We were coming to America, and we felt this keen imperative to mature the show in a way and prepare it for a very uncompromising audience.

You two have been friends since childhood. What makes this collaboration work?
Kit: We used to write pop songs because we were in a band for a long time before we started writing. But I think it works because Jim’s really nice, he’s really tolerant.

Jim: I think it’s because we trust each other, but presenting material to Kit, even though I’ve known him since I was 9, is really scary.

Kit: Maybe it’s because we were friends for such a long time that it always feels like we would never compromise that in favor of the work. Which means that we work more slowly, and sometimes days just sort of go up in smoke because we go for a walk or go to the pub or something. But at least we don’t give each other a hard time.

What’s your favorite moment in the show?
Jim: I think if I had to pick one moment, it would probably be “American Express.” I just think Tim Jackson has done something absolutely remarkable there. That’s the moment at which you just completely forget that you’re watching two people onstage. The amount of energy and visual acrobatics that he manages to conjure with just two actors and send us into the [intermission] feeling really uplifted and excited—I just think it’s amazing.

Kit: When [Robin] pulls the credit card out, it’s a promise to the audience. You feel a little ripple of excitement: something’s gonna happen.

What do you want audiences to feel when they walk out?
Jim: It would be lovely if they got the opportunity to see New York through the eyes of Dougal, to sort of fall in love with New York again.

Kit: If we can touch New Yorkers and people visiting New York with that sense of magic dust that adheres to New York, then that’s lovely.