Here’s a little tale of the Big Apple. Dougal arrives from England for a Christmastime wedding. His dad (who he has never met) is marrying Robin’s sister (it’s … complicated). They’re thrown together for 36 hours in New York. Doesn’t it sound like a movie?
A 2019 version of this bright British musical by Jim Barne and Kit Buchan, a freelance writer for the Observer, was called The Season: their new title captures the meet-cute energy. Grounded, sardonic Robin meets wide-eyed Dougal at JFK, and accepts his help collecting the wedding cake. As they cross the city (“I love the subway!”), he overshares, she shuts down – and they’re the same age, so she isn’t delighted when he tries out “Aunty Robin?” for size.
Dougal’s untethered optimism swirls like a snowglobe. A cinema usher, he has never been to New York but has seen Home Alone 2 more than once, so feels pretty much up to speed. Sam Tutty is bouncy as a knapsack full of puppies, his voice soaring but tremulous. It figures that he sings first – he’s an open book, whereas Robin keeps a lid on her feelings. But her barista monologue, What’ll It Be?, reveals the turmoil beneath. Dujonna Gift blends sweet and sorrow in the role, and can even sing sarcastically, which is quite the talent.
To Dougal, the city is a movie come to life; to Robin a reminder of dreams turned sour. Soutra Gilmour’s set design, two skyscrapers of frost-shaded luggage circling on an endless carousel, perfectly captures the mood. As Robin sings, “the world keeps spinning, but you stay where you are” – both she and Dougal wait for something to jolt their lives forward.
Barne’s melodies create a conversational lilt for Buchan’s fluent weave of rhyme. There’s a fun number about dating (Dougal: “I’m brilliant at Tinder”), a panicky Sondheimesque scrabble and an on-the-town spree with a borrowed credit card. And there’s introspection: Tutty’s expectations are whittled by doubt and Gift sings big in a yowl of self-reproach.
In Tim Jackson’s engaging production, wonderfully performed by Gift and Tutty, Two Strangers wears its romcom influences proudly but never sappily. Funny, heartfelt but unsentimental, it’s a charmer.
At Kiln theatre, London, until 20 January
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