Tom Hanks Will Lead THIS WORLD OF TOMORROW Off-Broadway
The production was written by Tom Hanks and James Glossman, based on short stories written by Hanks.
By: Stephi Wild May. 21, 2025
Tom Hanks will star in the world premiere of This World of Tomorrow, which he wrote with James Glossman, based on short stories written by Hanks. The production will be directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon.
The production will run for eight weeks at The Shed. Previews for This World of Tomorrow begin October 30 in The Shed’s Griffin Theater. The production closes December 21.
“It’s a thrill to produce and present the uniquely talented and beloved Tom Hanks in the world premiere of his new play This World of Tomorrow in our intimate Griffin Theater. Hanks’s long awaited return to the stage directed by the visionary Kenny Leon, together with Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brothers Size and Punchdrunk’s Viola’s Room, also in our 2025 season, illustrates The Shed's commitment to be a home for ambitious new productions,” said Alex Poots, The Shed’s artistic director.
This World of Tomorrow tells the story of Bert Allenberry, a forlorn scientist from the future, who embarks on a time-traveling quest for true love as he returns again, and again, and again to one special day at the 1939 World's Fair in Queens, New York.
“To explore the themes of love and yearning, and the struggles of Today as we carry with us the eternal memories of the Past, in such a place as The Shed, strikes me as a one-of-a-kind experience not unlike the World’s Fair of 1939,” said Tom Hanks.
"I'm excited to collaborate with the remarkable Tom Hanks on his and James Glossman's new play at The Shed this fall. It will be a joy to experience Tom leading the cast on stage in this time-traveling adventure of the limitless power of love and the distance one is willing to go for it. This story explores a fascinating tale of the echoes of past generations, the often-surprising collisions between them, and what is carried forward with an authentic humor I can’t wait to bring to life in the Griffin Theater,” said Kenny Leon.
Bios:
Tom Hanks is an award-winning actor, producer, and director. One of only two actors in history to win back-to-back Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role, he won his first Oscar in 1994 for his moving portrayal of AIDS-stricken lawyer Andrew Beckett in Jonathan Demme’s Philadelphia. The following year, he took home his second Oscar for his unforgettable performance in the title role of Robert Zemeckis’s Forrest Gump. He also won Golden Globe Awards for both films, as well as a SAG Award for the latter. Hanks has also been honored with Academy Award nominations for his performances in Penny Marshall’s Big, Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, Robert Zemeckis’s Cast Away, and, most recently, for his portrayal of Fred Rogers in Marielle Heller’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. He also won Golden Globes for Big and Cast Away. In 2013, Hanks made his Broadway debut in the Nora Ephron-penned play Lucky Guy. His performance earned him Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle, and Tony Award nominations. He is also the author of a best-selling collection of stories titled Uncommon Type and later, in 2023, he published his first full-length novel, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, which was a New York Times bestseller and was also recognized by NPR as Best Book of the Year. Hanks has received the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002, the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Chaplin Award in 2009, a Kennedy Center Honor in 2014, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.
Kenny Leon is a Tony Award-winning director. Broadway credits include Othello; Our Town; HOME; Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch; Topdog/Underdog; Ohio State Murders; A Soldier’s Play; American Son; Children of a Lesser God; Holler If Ya Hear Me; A Raisin in the Sun; The Mountaintop; Stick Fly; and August Wilson’s Fences, Gem of the Ocean, and Radio Golf. Off-Broadway: King James; The Underlying Chris; Everybody’s Ruby; Emergence-See! (The Public); and Smart People (Second Stage). Opera: Margaret Garner. Television: Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia; Colin in Black & White; 4400; Amend: The Fight for America; American Son (adapted for Netflix); Hairspray Live!; The Wiz Live!; Steel Magnolias; Dynasty; and In My Dreams. He is the author of Take You Wherever You Go, artistic director emeritus of Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company, and senior resident director of Roundabout Theatre Company. Awards include Obie, Actors Fund Medal of Honor, George Abbott Lifetime Achievement for American Theatre, and Jason Robards Award for Excellence in Theatre.
James Glossman has adapted novels and stories by Twain, Fitzgerald, Welty, Poe, O. Henry, Thurber, Barthelme, and Joyce; as well as Kate Atkinson’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Faulkner’s The Hamlet, and Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. His stage version of Raymond Chandler’s Trouble Is My Business premiered at Portland Stage Company, which hosted a workshop of an earlier version of This World of Tomorrow as part of their 2024 Little Festival of the Unexpected. In addition to the previous Hanks & Glossman play, Safe Home (2022), his most recent is the music-theater piece Shostakovich and the Black Monk: A Russian Fantasy, performed by the Grammy-winning Emerson String Quartet and a rotating cast including David Strathairn, Jay O. Sanders, Len Cariou, Jeffrey DeMunn, Richard Thomas, and Sean Astin, in concert halls from Tanglewood to Korea. An invited reading of his stage adaptation of The Door Into Summer, Robert A. Heinlein’s classic science fiction noir, was presented at the Ed Sullivan Theater with a cast including Jeff DeMunn and Stephen Colbert. In a collaboration over three decades, adapted and directed author and journalist Jim Lehrer’s novels Kick the Can, The Special Prisoner, and Flying Crows. Glossman’s new musical, with composer/lyricist Kingsley Day, of Rafael Sabatini’s Scaramouche will have its world premiere in Chicago in spring 2026. Dramatists Guild, AEA, SDC. He is on the faculty of Theatre Arts & Studies, Johns Hopkins, and runs the drama program at Far Brook School. He is a graduate of Northwestern, ACT, BADA-Oxford, and Yale School of Drama.
