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Daily Beast

Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York—and Onto Broadway

MEET CUTE

A Yank and a Brit share an unforgettable few days in the Big Apple in the new musical rom-com.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/two-strangers-carry-a-cake-across-new-yorkand-onto-broadway

"“Two Strangers” is funny in places, occasionally moving in others, and just a little off-feeling throughout, as if it is trying too hard to charm across the storytelling and whimsy chasms it creates for itself. Its flaws are not fatal, thanks to the singing skills, charm, and likeability of Pitts and Tutty who generate the right kind of tricky, rather than star-crossed, chemistry. (Can and should a would-be step-aunt and nephew really get together?)"

Three stars from NYP

‘Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York)’ review: A hilarious new star bursts onto Broadway

https://nypost.com/2025/11/20/entertainment/two-strangers-carry-a-cake-across-new-york-review-a-hilarious-new-star-bursts-onto-broadway

"Tutty’s co-star in the two-hander, Christiani Pitts, is lovely as the Brooklyn-born city dweller who picks him up at JFK. Chemistry is essential here, and the well-cast pair blindingly spark. But the truth is that Tutty is not only carrying a cake, but an entire show."

B+ from Entertainment Weekly

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) review: A delightful rom-com musical comes to Broadway

A show all about connection connects in all the best ways.

https://ew.com/two-strangers-carry-a-cake-across-new-york-review-delightful-rom-com-musical-broadway-11850800

 

NY Daily News/Chicago Tribune

BROADWAY REVIEW: ‘Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across NY’ is cute but too long

https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/11/20/broadway-review-two-strangers-carry-a-cake-across-ny-is-cute-but-too-long

"Stories with odd couples on the edge of Eros, so to speak, can be very effective (see the movie “Lost in Translation” or the musical “The Band’s Visit“) but if writers choose to have their couple get naked and hit the sheets, in this case at the Plaza Hotel, since we’re all about New York aspiration here, they struggle to know where to go. So while this show held me for Act One with its considerable charm, by Act Two, it was hitting turbulence. 90 minutes and out would have been a better plan."

The Wrap

'Two Strangers' Broadway Review: They Sing Together, They Dance Together, They Don't Belong Together

"Two Strangers" is a new rom-com musical begins promisingly but loses its way somewhere between JFK and midtown Manhattan.

https://www.thewrap.com/two-strangers-broadway-review

Theatrely is negative

TWO STRANGERS (CARRY A CAKE ACROSS NEW YORK): The Great British Millennial-Off — Review

https://www.theatrely.com/post/two-strangers-carry-a-cake-across-new-york-the-great-british-millennial-off-review

"I felt a disorienting generational whiplash throughout the treacly rom-com Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York). The latest British musical to make it through that country’s off-off ranks and onto our shores, it follows two 20-somethings during a whirlwind wedding weekend in present-day New York. And yet it fundamentally misunderstands Gen Z, is shot through with elder Millennial sensibility, and had a mostly older crowd wiping tears of laughter from their eyes. They seemed to thoroughly enjoy it, so congrats to all involved, but let me submit my dissenting opinion anyway."

Vulture: McHenry is mixed

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) Is a Little Sweet, a Little Spongy

'Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York),' an oddball British musical by Barne and Buchan, is charming but feels underscale for Broadway.

https://www.vulture.com/article/theater-review-two-strangers-carry-a-cake-across-new-york-barne-buchan-broadway.html

NY Stage Review

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York): Charming Musical Rom-Com Isn’t Heavy Lifting

By Frank Scheck

November 20, 2025

★★★★☆ Sam Tutty and Christiani Pitts star in this London import that could be a sleeper hit.

 

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York): A Tasty Slice of Cake

By David Finkle

November 20, 2025

★★★★☆ Musical import tells sweet-bitter tale of Brit and American finding each other and themselves

NYT Critic's Pick from Collins-Hughes

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/20/theater/two-strangers-carry-cake-review.html

‘Two Strangers’ Review: Meeting Cute, Toting Baggage

The effervescent musical, a new London import, delivers lavishly on the promise of a rom-com: laughter, escape and fantasy.

Helen Shaw's review for the New Yorker came out yesterday if it hasn't been posted yet.

Kristin Chenoweth’s Uneven Gilt Trip in “The Queen of Versailles”

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/11/24/the-queen-of-versailles-theatre-review-the-burning-cauldron-of-fiery-fire

 

Also Rita Moreno has been open about the fact that her career struggled immediately after she won an Oscar for the same role, partly because she was only offered stereotypical roles she turned down. Things may be somewhat better, but are there a lot of roles DeBose would have been right for that she's missed out on? Being an Oscar winner doesn't go far if the roles simply aren't there.

Sean Hayes in The Unknown

https://studioseaview.com/show/the-unknown/

EDSOSLO858 said: "DTLI Consensus:Rollicking pop-rock score? Check. Three charismatic leads with immense vocal prowess? Check.Slick, sleek direction? Check. An improved revival of a famously flawed tuner? Not quite checkmate.

9 mixed (including the NYT), 3 positive, 3 negative.

https://didtheylikeit.com/shows/chess/"

I usually find it tiresome to argue over what's been classified positive/mixed/negative...but Holdren's review should clearly be positive, not mixed. 

Daily Beast

‘Chess,’ Theater’s Most Notorious Strange Beast, Finally Returns

CHECKMATE

A chess rivalry, the Cold War, and a love triangle: The quintessentially ‘80s musical is back on Broadway, in all its bombast.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/chess-review-theaters-most-notorious-strange-beast-finally-returns

"rather like a chess match, the show (directed by Michael Mayer, with a new book by Danny Strong), stares down each one of its own structural and narrative flaws, fixes the audience with a challenging glare, then makes a series of moves best known to itself to win our attention.

The show—less about chess, more about the possible end of the world because of Russian-American tensions—works in enough fits and starts to cohere, and in a few sung moments to actually thrill, thanks to the go-for-broke commitment of Christopher, Tveit, and Lea Michele as Florence, Freddie’s lover and chess strategist. The trio are differently excellent performers, who try— ultimately in vain—to make Chess’ characters and story intelligible."

The Wrap

‘Chess’ Broadway Review: It’s the Other ABBA Musical, the One That Never Works

The songs by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus return, strung together by a new, confusing book

https://www.thewrap.com/chess-broadway-review-abba-musical-lea-michele

"Danny Strong has rewritten that book for the first Broadway revival of “Chess,” which opened Sunday at the Imperial Theatre. Lovers of ABBA may continue to think the score’s great. For the rest of us, the musical features a couple of treacly sweet love songs and a slew of ponderous anthems and percussive dirges driven by propulsive rhythms. Audial exhaustion sets in about halfway through act one.

As for Strong’s new book, it’s even more confusing than Nelson’s rewrite, which never quite made sense of the story’s love triangle – or the show’s chess metaphor regarding the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. blowing each other up."

...

"

Tveit, a Tony winner for “Moulin Rouge,” delivers his best stage performance to date and emerges here as the only sympathetic character.

Lea Michele, on the other hand, exudes only defiance and resentment. She’s pissed off about something from the get-go and we never learn what’s making her so edgy – except for the fact that in today’s musicals female characters must show strength whatever the cost to the love story. Besides being Freddie’s girlfriend, she’s his “second,” someone who helps the chess player prepare for a match. Maybe Florence resents not being the star player, and Michele certainly makes the case for hogging the spotlight."

 

 

Theatermania

Review: Chess Returns to Broadway With Checkmate Vocals and a Checked-Out Book

https://www.theatermania.com/news/review-chess-returns-to-broadway-with-checkmate-vocals-and-a-checked-out-book_1812218

"Chess has always been a great score in search of a good book, and writer Danny Strong believes he’s cracked the code by reframing it as a self-referential examination of Cold War-era American and Russian relations, filled with a healthy dose of humor and antipathy. He hasn’t. But it’s nice to hear the score live."

Wall Street Journal

‘Chess’ Review: A Broadway-Musical Blunder

Lea Michele, Aaron Tveit and Nicholas Christopher lead a fruitlessly revamped version of the 1980s synth-pop extravaganza about the board game, a love triangle and the Cold War.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/chess-review-a-broadway-musical-blunder-1d9062e9

"In one of the more ludicrous passages, Freddie and Anatoly announce their chess moves (“Pawn to C4”) while simultaneously regaling us with their miseries. Freddie: “I hate chess. I hate my life. I wanna die.” Anatoly: “I wanna die.” Neither attempts suicide by ingesting a board’s worth of chess pieces, but Freddie subsequently storms off, throwing the competition into doubt.

Mr. Strong’s book dives into the political machinations behind the chess face-off in deliberate detail—Florence, born in Communist Hungary, is threatened by Walter with deportation if she doesn’t get Freddie to lose the match. And in the second act the SALT drama is replaced by nuclear maneuvers (specifically the “Able Archer” incident, likely little known to any but historians). But these convoluted John le Carré diversions are not engaging, and the attempts to enrich the characters are clunky. After Anatoly and Florence have fallen into bed, he says: “I could never defect because I was afraid to lose the Russia in my heart. But I would leave the Soviet Union for you.” The hopeless romantic promptly does.

Which brings us to the primary, indeed only, reason to revisit this dated and fundamentally trite show: the music. Mr. Christopher is terrific as the brooding Anatoly, who after defecting sings the first-act curtain number, “Anthem,” with both plush vocalism and fiery emotion. Ms. Michele is in glorious voice, and her first-act solo, the defiant “Nobody’s Side,” is a vibrant roof-raiser. Mr. Tveit’s rich, clear tenor shines throughout. He leads the pseudo-rap number “One Night in Bangkok,” which became a pop-chart hit when the concept album was released."

Washington Post

The wacky chess musical is back, and it’s packed with bangers

Lea Michele leads an ambitious and blaring revival of “Chess,” a famous flop of the 1980s megamusical era.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater/2025/11/16/chess-broadway-review

"Strong’s script, which combines elements from previous versions and adds more frank comedy, tries to have it both ways, poking fun at itself while turning the show’s chess face-offs into matters of nuclear war. Sean Allan Krill and Bradley Dean are both delightfully smarmy as agents with the CIA and the KGB, respectively, negotiating around the margins about which opponent needs to win to prevent Earth’s destruction.

It’s all a bit cuckoo, and would feel somewhat extraneous if there weren’t so many songs — despite those that have been cut — to fit a bevy of twists and turns. (As the plot goes increasingly off the rails in the second act, the two-hour-forty-five-minute runtime starts to feel like a slog.)

What everyone is really here for are the handful of blow-your-hair-back, 1980s-style rock ballads sung by the love-triangulated leads. Whether or not you appreciate the outrageous decibels at which they are amplified here, the bangers are built to impress, with notes held for longer than most people can count in their heads. Bring earplugs! Bring Kleenex! Prepare to succumb!"

 

NY Daily News/Chicago Tribune

BROADWAY REVIEW: Guilty pleasure ‘Chess’ with Michele, Tveit, Christopher doesn’t miss

https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/11/16/chess-broadway-review-lea-michele-aaron-tveit

"Nobody cared much about all that absurdity in London back then (snobbier Broadway was another matter) and nobody will care much now, not with three powerhouse, love-triangle voices to belt out an anthemic score packed with knockout ballads that I for one have been listening to (at high volume) for nearly 40 years: “Someone Else’s Story,” “Pity the Child,” “Heaven Help My Heart,” “I Know Him So Well.”

I mean, with Michele, she of the flawless technique and ability to make half the audience think she is singing just to them? With Tveit, all sexy hair and plaintive notes? With Christopher, all Euro-angst landing right in the middle of every thrilling note? Come on. What better way do you have in mind to pass your leisure hours? Playing board games?"