Review of Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York on Broadway

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

I used to live in New York City when I went to college, as I attended the Fashion Institute of Technology for my undergraduate degrees, but when I left the city because of the COVID-19 pandemic and never really returned, I knew that I was regretting my time in college not taking advantage of student deals for Broadway and Off-Broadway productions.

Granted, I had never been exposed to that kind of environment, or theatre at all, so when I started working in New York theatre and spent some time in that world, I jumped back into it. This blog has been a way to document my journey as a theatre lover and watcher, especially considering I don’t like to do short-form video. Written criticism has always been my thing more.

Today’s post stems from a trip I’ve just completed to New York (after the time of typing of this). It started when I purchased tickets to Jesa at the Public Theater, then when I secured a place to stay, I purchased more tickets to Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York and Fallen Angels.

This blog post is for Two Strangers. I sat in the balcony, in the cheapest seat I could find, and I thought that the view was perfect. I was weary about spending more for this show because of how unsure I was if I would like it, but like most Broadway theaters (not all), the balcony was more than enough for me.

Let’s get into the review! Lots to unpack with this show.

Dougal, freshly arrived from England for his father’s wedding, meets New York City native Robin.

The first thing you’ll notice as soon as you walk into the Longacre Theater is the set for this show. There are two mountains of luggage on a circular revolving stage, and as we see throughout the show, there are closets, beds, and so much more tucked into those little pieces of luggage.

It’s also an apt metaphor for the characters and their mental state. This is a two actor play and we meet our leads immediately. Dougal arrives from England to go to his estranged father’s wedding, as he’s been invited, and it’s the first time he’s actually seen his father in a long time.

Robin, on the other hand, is a barista and Flatbush native down on her luck and disillusioned with the city and what it has to offer. She’s sent to go pick Dougal, who’s chipper and ready to be a peak tourist, at the airport, much to her dismay.

It’s her sister that’s getting married to Dougal’s dad—despite their major age gap. As we learn later on there’s some major tension between the two sisters going on, which extends the themes about family troubles and what we do to fix them (or move on) for a peace of mind.

As soon as Robin meets Dougal though she kind of hates him. He’s bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to conquer every tourist site despite not having any money. It’s from this moment on though he latches himself onto his new “aunt” (despite them also being around the same age), and Robin eventually learns to like him.

So this is indeed a show about emotional baggage (making the stage’s symbolism a bit heavy-handed in the long-run) and what we find in platonic relationships. There are implications that these two are romantically interested in each other, but I think this moment in their life was more about the platonic bond they formed with each other.

There are some bangers in the musical sense too, although I found the book and majority of the songs to be kind of forgettable. Both actors do a really great job embodying their characters and everyone around me was dying because of the jokes.

Overall Thoughts

This was a fairly solid show overall, but I personally am not glad I spent a ton of money as a budget-conscious theatre goer. I had a really good time and laughed a lot, but this wasn’t particularly memorable in the stories about New York City that already exist out there in the world.

It is also a bit misleading to call this “carrying a cake across New York” and then have the playbill picture be them on the subway. It’s only a short moment in the show and the characters end up getting an Uber to take the cakes to Robin’s sister’s fancy apartment. That’s when the secrets in the show start to expose themself and things start getting a lot deeper.

Anyways, I say see this if you’re interested. It’s always great to support small shows during times where it’s a lot more difficult for these shows to find their feet and audience. It’s charming to see these shows on Broadway, and if you want to support smaller productions without big names, this is the perfect opportunity!

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