By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Sunday 7 April, opens 23 April and runs through 14 July 2024 RUNTIME: 135 minutes (including a 20-minute interval) Update: run extended through 31 August 2024

If you’re here because leading man Sam Tutty won a Best Actor In A Musical Olivier Award for Dear Evan Hansen, sit down, sip on a coffee and stay a while because he’s a good reason but not the best 1 to see this new musical.

• Read on for reasons including how this is the story of an unlikely couple saving each other when they least expect it

It’s the unravelling of Dujonna Gift (Two Strangers, Kiln Theatre) as barista Robin which is the real draw here as she meets cousin Dougal, played by Olivier Award winner Tutty (Dear Evan Hansen), who thinks he has been invited by the father he has never met to New York to his 2nd wedding to ‘auntie’ Robin’s elder sister.

We reviewed this musical at its 1st preview at the Kiln Theatre in north London back in November and it won our Best New Musical monsta in 2023.

It’s initially about the differences between America and England, literally like Marmite, as world-weary barista Robin meets irrepressibly optimistic and wide-eyed 25-year-old Dougal from Crawley at the airport as he is more than excited for his 1st 36 hours in the Big Apple.

Opening song in this 2-hander is New York by Dougal and it’s a great scene-setter as well as being the perfect toetapper with its: ‘Where everything comes with a smile, a high 5 and a side of cheese, I’m down on my knees.’

Dougal’s puppy dog-enthusiasm for the city is matched only be his need to see his father expressed in song Dad where he asks himself: ‘Maybe we could kick a ball together? Reminisce about it all together? At the wedding I could sit with you? Chew the fat and shoot the shit with you.’

It’s the night before the wedding and Dougal helps Robin carry the cake across the city to the couple’s luxury apartment and we learn that his absent father knows nor cares little about him and we wonder whether the bride’s sister, Robin, has been uninvited.

He helps her get a Tinder date and then they use the credit card Robin has been given to buy the cake to go out on a night on the town during song American Express immediately before the interval, waking up at the start of Act 2 in a hotel bed together where they sing The Hangover Duet.

We said of its initial run: ‘Both Tutty and Gift are great singers but also beautifully engaging with a chemistry that will leave you with a warm glow as you reluctantly leave this hug of a show.’

It has had a glow up since we 1st saw it. We’re in row 3 where artifical snow falls upon us at the show’s conclusion.

It’s a 2-hander which draws on the appeal of 80s rom-com films for its feels, its songs are memorable and sung brilliantly by the young cast which will bowl you over in this story of an unlikely couple saving each other when they least expect it.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Two Strangers Tickets
• Have you seen a show starring Sam Tutty before and what did you think of this production? Tickets
• Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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