{"id":2438640,"date":"2026-05-30T23:16:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T23:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2438640"},"modified":"2026-05-30T23:16:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T23:16:18","slug":"writers-of-tony-nominee-two-strangers-carry-a-cake-across-new-york-never-lived-in-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/writers-of-tony-nominee-two-strangers-carry-a-cake-across-new-york-never-lived-in-new-york\/","title":{"rendered":"Writers of Tony nominee &#8216;Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York),&#8217; never lived in New York"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F05%2F129130952.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Their lives changed in a New York minute.<\/p>\n<p>The childhood friends from England who wrote \u201cTwo Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York)\u201d \u2014 which has been nominated for a staggering eight Tony Awards \u2014 never even lived in New York before writing <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/11\/20\/entertainment\/two-strangers-carry-a-cake-across-new-york-review-a-hilarious-new-star-bursts-onto-broadway\/\">the Broadway musical<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Kit Buchan and Jim Barne had only visited the Big Apple as tourists, so relied heavily on films based in the city to pen the production. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll our lives, we just absorb so much of this city and felt so familiar with it, despite the fact that the majority of what we were digesting was actually movies,\u201d Buchan told The Post.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Jim Barne and Kit Buchan penned \u201cTwo Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York),\u201d which is nominated for eight Tony Awards. <span class=\"credit\">Jenny Anderson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>During the writing process for the show \u2014 which follows a British tourist enamored with New York City who meets a native Brooklynite immune to its charms \u2014 the pals rewatched classics set in NYC.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cWe would work during the day and then at night we would watch a romcom,\u201d Barne said.<\/p>\n<p>The pair couldn\u2019t even name all the movies that influenced them while writing the show, whose Tony nominations include Best Musical and Best Book for their script. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut certainly \u2018Crossing Delancey,\u2019 \u2018When Harry Met Sally\u2026,\u2019 \u2018Moonstruck,\u2019 \u2018Serendipity,\u2019 also the first two in the \u2018Before\u2019 trilogy [\u2018Before Sunrise\u2019 and \u2018Before Sunset\u2019],\u201d Buchan said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s also the Christmas movies, like \u2018Home Alone 2\u2019 and \u2018Miracle on 34th Street\u2019 \u2026 And even beyond that [rom-com] genre, there\u2019s obviously like all the Spike Lee and [Martin] Scorsese films.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The duo named the 1987 rom-com \u201cMoonstruck,\u201d starring Nicolas Cage and Cher, as one of their inspirations.  <span class=\"credit\">\u00a9MGM\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The duo also made sure to tackle the fact that most New Yorkers aren\u2019t living or hanging out in the touristy areas these films are set in \u2014 partly because they cannot afford them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt one point you come to the realization that a lot of these films that are set in New York, they\u2019re really set in only one stratum of New York, which is a stratum that is not really accessible to most people,\u201d Buchan said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd certainly our lead female character isn\u2019t living that way,\u201d he added of their protagonist, Robin, who lives in Flatbush and makes ends meet by working at a coffee shop.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Sam Tutty and Christiani Pitts were both nominated for their leading roles in the musical. <span class=\"credit\">Matthew Murphy<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Actual New Yorkers working on the show \u2014 which first opened in London in 2023, and came to <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/05\/02\/us-news\/married-couple-starring-as-jay-daisy-in-broadways-the-great-gatsby\/\">Broadway<\/a> at the Longacre Theatre in November \u2014 also helped the scribes by pointing out lines that weren\u2019t authentic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had a traffic report that used the phrase \u2018Brooklyn Queens Expressway.\u2019 And there was a New Yorker working on the show, Michelle, who\u2019s actually from Flatbush, and she was like, \u2018No one ever says \u2018Brooklyn Expressway,&#8217;\u201d Buchan recalled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd that\u2019s something that you couldn\u2019t know, even if you visited New York loads of times.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>\u201cI wasn\u2019t even there, and I was dazzled,\u201d Buchan said, referring to when Queens native Susan Sarandon saw the show. <span class=\"credit\">Courtesy of Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York).<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One of the quotes that gets the most laughs is \u201cYou\u2019re from New York, so you must go to the Statue of Liberty all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know, that never really got a laugh in London,\u201d Buchan said. \u201cBecause they don\u2019t understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The duo reflected on two pinch-me moments where famous faces came to see the show.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSusan Sarandon,\u201d Buchan gushed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wasn\u2019t even there, and I was dazzled. I couldn\u2019t believe it was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just see the show report and it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, Lin-Manuel Miranda just came to see your show,&#8217;\u201d Barne added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know, you don\u2019t get the biggest celebrities in the world coming to see musicals in London \u2026 That\u2019s when it hits home.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Their lives changed in a New York minute. The childhood friends from England who wrote \u201cTwo Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York)\u201d \u2014 which has been nominated for a staggering eight Tony Awards \u2014 never even lived in New York before writing the Broadway musical. Kit Buchan and Jim Barne had only visited the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2438641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25174],"tags":[344468,364346,23898,21741,25404,305179,403851,347099,353106,352075,400235],"class_list":["post-2438640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gossip","tag-broadway","tag-classic-movies","tag-england","tag-entertainment","tag-exclusive","tag-lin-manuel-miranda","tag-new-york-city-life","tag-romantic-comedies","tag-susan-sarandon","tag-tony-awards","tag-writers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Writers-of-Tony-nominee-Two-Strangers-Carry-A-Cake-Across.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2438640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2438640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2438640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2438642,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2438640\/revisions\/2438642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2438641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2438640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2438640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2438640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}