Broadway<\/a> would know each other, and we\u2019d be transported back to that childhood playground feeling of, \u2018Those are the cool kids, and we\u2019re massive losers.\u2019 Actually, it\u2019s not been like that at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tIn fact, \u201cTwo Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)\u201d has been embraced by critics and audiences, and the production is nominated in eight categories at the Tony Awards, including best musical, book and original score. First produced around England in 2019, the show had lauded runs on the West End and Cambridge\u2019s American Repertory Theater before transferring to Broadway\u2019s Longacre Theatre last November. Given the (mouthful of a) moniker, the New York stage was naturally the final frontier.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhenever we hear a New Yorker say they liked it,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0like sunshine in our veins,\u201d Buchan says.<\/p>\n
\n\tBarne and Buchan are longtime friends who share a sense of humor (the extremely tall men like to joke they have a combined height of 12\u20196\u201d) and love of pop culture. They met in grade school at age 9 and spent decades writing pop songs and jamming on the guitar for fun before trying their hand at crafting a musical. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tBritish writers Jim Barne and Kit Buchan have been friends since age 9<\/p>\n
\n\tBarne doesn\u2019t overthink the secret sauce of their creative partnership. \u201cWe just have a nice time,\u201d he cracks.<\/p>\n
\n\tAs Brits, they might be prone to modesty. Tim Jackson, the director of \u201cTwo Strangers,\u201d refers to the synergy of Barne and Buchan as \u201cnext level.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cTheir minds are so full of yummy brilliance,\u201d Jackson says via email. \u201cAnd the amount of care they put into every line, lyric and musical note they write is staggering.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThough Barne and Buchan have lived across the pond all their lives, they were raised on American comedies like \u201cFriends.\u201d With \u201cTwo Strangers,\u201d they pay homage to New York-set and Christmas-centric movies like \u201cWhen Harry Met Sally,\u201d \u201cMoonstruck,\u201d \u201cHome Alone\u201d and \u201cMiracle on 34th Street.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe wanted to write a show that\u2019s a pastiche of those stories but also has a lovely attitude,\u201d Buchan says. \u201cWe wanted to have our cake and eat it too.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOn a recent afternoon, the pair met at a bustling coffee shop to talk about making their Broadway debut, their love of New York City and their ambitions to make a \u201cplotless\u201d musical.<\/p>\n
\t\tHow have you been enjoying New York City?\u00a0Now that you\u2019ve spent more time here, is the city what you\u2019d imagined?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tBarne: The first time we came out last fall, we\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0have any free time.\u00a0We\u00a0had all these things we\u00a0were\u00a0desperate to do. We went boating in Central Park and went to Coney Island. We were having a wonderful time, but we were just in the theater all the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBuchan: We were living in Hell\u2019s Kitchen on 10th Avenue. I was in a fifth-floor walk-up\u00a0above a gay club called\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0Him, and the staircase was fumigated every Wednesday. It was just wonderful. It was exactly what I wanted. The producers were like, \u201cYou want to live here?\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\tWhat was your relationship to New York City before you wrote the show?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tBuchan: It was rather\u00a0like our lead actor. In his case, he\u2019s never been here. In our case, we had a very intense cultural curiosity about New York, to the point of having a sort of aspirational familiarity. A lot of that came from movies and musical theater. Dougal\u00a0has a kind of delusion that he is already part of it, and we\u00a0had a bit of that delusion in a way. By virtue of writing this play, we\u2019ve made our own fantasy become a reality, which is the loveliest side effect imaginable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\tWhere did you get the idea for \u201cTwo Strangers\u201d?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tBuchan: When\u00a0we were younger, we were a bit lost.\u00a0Not just in terms of musical\u00a0theater, but\u00a0a lot of\u00a0art forms; we felt a\u00a0little bit alienated from the general narrative. It was quite rare to encounter a musical that spoke to the way that we perceived ourselves, because I think musicals do quite naturally lend themselves to stories about big, aspirational, ambitious characters. We hoped it might be possible to dramatize this fluctuation in people\u2019s lives, but for the stakes to feel high enough, even though it was the familiar lives of two not-rich, not-famous, not-ambitious, not-infamous, not-world-changing people.<\/p>\n
\t\tHow did the specific elements, like carrying a cake across New York, come together?\u00a0\t<\/p>\n
\n\tBarne: Some of them were by necessity. We had a workshop early,\u00a0probably in 2018, and the whole first act was\u00a0spent on the subway, coming in from the airport. One of the writers at this workshop was like, \u201cIt would be more fun if they\u00a0weren\u2019t\u00a0on the subway for all of Act One. New York is an amazing place. Maybe they\u00a0should be out in the city.\u201d\u00a0We\u2019d\u00a0done a show before where we had far too much plot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBuchan: Far too much plot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBarne: We\u00a0decided we\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0want any plot.\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0going to\u00a0do a plotless musical. Just two characters chatting. <\/p>\n
\n\tBuchan:\u00a0Our first musical had a cast of 16, and we did it with a company of 34 kids between the ages of 10 and 23.\u00a0It was so complex. We\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0choose to do\u00a0a two-hander for commercial reasons. We chose to do it because we thought we could streamline the process of writing a musical. But it causes more trouble than it solves, because then you have this problem of \u201cHow do you move them around?\u201d Act One is\u00a0basically one\u00a0long scene. There are no breaks in the action, so how do you negotiate this trajectory and keep it interesting for an audience so they\u00a0don\u2019t get tired of looking at the same two people chatting to each other and singing?<\/p>\n
\n\tBarne: On different modes of public transportation. Sometimes you hear authors talking about stories just, like, dropping into their heads. It definitely wasn\u2019t like that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBuchan: Where did the cake come from? Once we knew we were setting it at a wedding, there are certain things that present themselves to you.<\/p>\n
\t\tI love hearing about how projects are named, because it\u2019s usually a more involved process than people realize. How did you land on this very long title?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tBarne: We\u00a0can show you a list of 200 names we were choosing between.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBuchan: It was the fifth name the musical had. It\u00a0went on\u00a0professionally under a different title before coming to Broadway.\u00a0It was\u00a0called \u201cThe Season.\u201d There was a focus group, and our producers were like, \u201cWe\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0think the title is working. \u201cWe think we need a new one.\u201d We wrote this huge document of titles being\u00a0\u2014<\/p>\n
\n\tBarne: \u2014 more and\u00a0more\u00a0strange.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBuchan: \u201cTwo Strangers\u201d\u00a0was\u00a0down at the bottom of the list. We had a brilliant producer named Tim Johansen, who said, \u201cGood musicals\u00a0describe.\u201d Almost as\u00a0a joke, at the very bottom of the list, we wrote \u201cTwo Strangers Carry a Cake Across New\u00a0York.\u201d He was like,\u00a0\u201cI\u00a0think\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0it.\u201d And we were like, \u201cReally?\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\tDid you get any helpful feedback from New Yorkers? \t<\/p>\n
\n\tBarne: We have a very dear [mentor], David James. He runs this workshop we did, and\u00a0he helped with Robin\u2019s\u00a0order in the Chinese restaurant in Chinatown.\u00a0He said, \u201cYou need to\u00a0put cold\u00a0sesame\u00a0noodles.\u201d It\u2019s\u00a0not a thing in the U.K.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBuchan:\u00a0The kind of restaurant we had in mind to go to in Chinatown was an older kind of \u201970s, slightly Americanized Chinese thing. He was the first person to be like, \u201cThis is not your order, and a New Yorker will know. That\u2019s not something you\u2019d order.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\tWas there a moment you knew it was going to work on Broadway?\u00a0\t<\/p>\n
\n\tBarne:\u00a0It\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0until we saw it with a live audience. It was terrifying. So just\u00a0the relief that people were laughing\u2026 You always forget, but this happens every time: You go into the rehearsal period, and no one laughs at the entire rehearsal period, because everyone knows the show\u00a0and they\u2019ve heard the joke a million times. You sort of forget that it\u2019s funny. Then you go into the auditorium, and people laugh, and you\u2019re like, [gasps].<\/p>\n
\n\tBuchan: And there were jokes that no one ever laughed at in London. For example, when\u00a0Dougal\u00a0says to Robin, \u201cWell, you\u2019re from New York, so you probably go to the Statue of Liberty all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBarne: Because they were like,\u00a0\u201cProbably she\u00a0does, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBuchan: You\u00a0have to\u00a0have faith in the writing that it might\u00a0ultimately pay\u00a0off. At an opening night party for us, Tye Blue, the director and writer of \u201cTitanique,\u201d who I\u2019d never met, bounded up to me and was like, \u201cYou\u2019re a Critics\u2019 Pick in the New York Times<\/a>!\u201d I was like, \u201cI don\u2019t know what that means, but it sounds good.\u201d I mean, I did know what it meant, but I didn\u2019t realize what an important moment that would be for the show.\u00a0Then we could\u00a0breathe\u00a0a sigh of relief that at least we\u00a0hadn\u2019t\u00a0humiliated ourselves.<\/p>\n\t\tThe show is laugh-out-loud funny. Do you have one line or joke in the show\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0really proud\u00a0of?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tBuchan: I am the\u00a0book\u00a0writer, but Jim did\u00a0come up with\u00a0a lot of the funniest jokes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBarne: That\u2019s\u00a0not true.\u00a0Don\u2019t\u00a0put that in the interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBuchan: You\u00a0can put that in the interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBarne: Often the bits you enjoy the most are the bits you\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0fully\u00a0foresee.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBuchan: When Robin says \u201cI\u2019m\u00a0cold,\u201d\u00a0and Dougal says \u201cYou\u2019re not as cold as you think.\u201d People laugh, and I always think, \u201cThat\u2019s\u00a0worked so well. I could never have possibly hoped that moment would work well as it does.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\tHave you had any experiences of famous people coming to see the show?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tBuchan:\u00a0We live in London, so that has happened a couple of times when we weren\u2019t able to meet them, but it was\u00a0nevertheless\u00a0mind-blowingly exciting.\u00a0We\u2019ve\u00a0had a couple of heart-stopping meeting your heroes days, particularly with musical theater writers.\u00a0It\u00a0feels really strange because you\u2019re so nervous about them seeing the work. When we were in London,\u00a0Lin-Manuel\u00a0Miranda came to see the show. And so did Susan Sarandon. I adore her.<\/p>\n
\n\tBarne: Pasek\u00a0and\u00a0Paul\u00a0came to see the show. We met\u00a0Benj\u00a0Pasek\u00a0after, and he was so\u00a0kind. We\u00a0met [\u201cFrozen\u201d songwriters]\u00a0Bobby and Kristen Lopez. They are so down-to-earth and funny.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBuchan:\u00a0It made the actors feel wonderful. In fact, I watched the way they spoke to us and thought, \u201cIf\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0ever in a\u00a0position of going to see somebody\u2019s show, I would like to be able to do it like that.\u201d It was so honest.\u00a0We\u00a0were trying to be cool, and then they left the room and\u00a0we [freaked\u00a0out].\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\tHow does the theater scene in New York compare to the West End?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tBarne: Central London kind of dies off after 10:30 p.m. It\u2019s so lovely to be able to just stroll into a bar after the theater and have a drink and something sweet. I mean, it\u2019s a bit dangerous.<\/p>\n
\n\tBuchan: There was a pub near the theater in London where we would always go,\u00a0and it would sort of\u00a0immediately\u00a0close. Or it would be last call. Whereas, The Longacre is next to an Irish pub called Hurley\u2019s.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0been there since the late 19th century.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0run by a man named Paul.\u00a0He\u2019s really lovely.\u00a0We met him in our first week, and he was like, \u201cWe\u2019ve got our fingers crossed for you. We really need a hit.\u201d The Longacre hasn\u2019t had a show run for very long for a while because of COVID. That sense of interconnectedness of the Broadway community, I suddenly felt like, \u201cI really want to do it for\u00a0Paul.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\tHave you had any glamorous nights out in the city like Robin and Dougal do in the show? Have you visited the Plaza?\t<\/p>\n
\n\tBarne: My sister came\u00a0to New York for her 40th birthday. It was the night before our opening on Broadway.\u00a0She brought some friends, and we tried to arrange to go to the Plaza for drinks before her birthday meal. We got there, and\u00a0they were like,\u00a0\u201cYou\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0drink now, but you can come back at 6 p.m., but\u00a0you\u2019ll\u00a0need a reservation.\u201d\u00a0We\u00a0were like, \u201cOK, well,\u00a0can we reserve a table?\u00a0They were\u00a0like, \u201cNo.\u201d So I\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0been yet. But\u00a0the Tonys\u00a0afterparty is at the Plaza, so maybe we finally get in.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jim Barne and Kit Buchan were terrified of being outed as frauds. After all, they were two very…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[207,9,11,10,26656],"class_list":["post-252207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-broadway","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-two-strangers-carry-a-cake-across-new-york"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}