"But I'd be more comfortable calling the staging of This World of Tomorrow - starring Tom Hanks, written by Hanks and his collaborator James Glossman, directed by Kenny Leon, and based off elements of Hanks's short-story collection, Uncommon Type - something more along the lines of "a flight of fancy," "a doodle on a napkin," or "a college-drama-club project with the express purpose of making one person happy.""
"Tom Hanks, the moral nice-guy mayor of Hollywood, is the closest thing the film industry has to a Jimmy Stewart, and I'm happy to believe that his forays into writing have developed out of genuine artistic interest in good-hearted Americana. (Inevitably, a character speaks admiringly about a typewriter.) Whether a theater company should spend its time and resources developing and staging what he has written is another question. (No.)"
This World of Tomorrow is a stage piece built as a Tom Hanks showcase rather than a conventional play. Hanks co-wrote the material with James Glossman and performs as Bert Allenberry, a wealthy tech titan who repeatedly travels from about 2100 to the 1939 New York World's Fair through a company called Chronometric Adventures. The trips are driven by an infatuation with Carmen Perry rather than historical curiosity. Kenny Leon directs a cast of talented collaborators who largely orbit Hanks's presence. The tone is nostalgic, amiable Americana, and the production reads as an indulgent, star-focused fantasia that favors admiration over dramatic rigor.
Read at Vulture
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