Tom Hanks and Kelli O’Hara are returning to Broadway in This World of Tomorrow, a play Hanks wrote with James Glossman. Kenny Leon will direct. Bert Allenberry, a scientist from the future, repeatedly travels back to one day at the 1939 New York World’s Fair in search of love. Hanks last appeared on Broadway in Nora Ephron’s Lucky Guy in 2013. Hanks and O’Hara also appeared together in an earlier New York staging of this play.
Tom Hanks and Kelli O’Hara will reunite on Broadway in This World of Tomorrow. They also led the play’s 2025 engagement at The Shed in New York. Kenny Leon will direct the new staging. Hanks wrote the play with James Glossman, drawing on his own short stories. The Broadway transfer brings the same two lead performers back to a work they have already presented together on a New York stage.[1], [2]
Hanks plays Bert Allenberry, a scientist living in the future. In 2089, Allenberry begins returning to the same day at the 1939 New York World’s Fair in Queens as he tries to change his life. His journeys into the past drive a romance rather than a series of unrelated adventures. The earlier production at The Shed established this story with Hanks and O’Hara in the lead roles before its Broadway move.[1], [2]
Broadway performances are planned for autumn 2027; exact dates and the theater have yet to be named. Hanks’s return follows a 14-year absence from Broadway. The two leads and director are named, while the rest of the cast and creative team are due to be announced later.[1]
