B'way Update: Jonathan Groff and Tom Hanks Return

Jonathan Groff

Tony winner Jonathan Groff and Oscar winner Tom Hanks will return to Broadway later this season, Groff in a new solo play The Amish Project and Hanks in a transfer of This World of Tomorrow, a play he co-wrote which previously played The Shed Off-Broadway.

Groff (Merrily We Roll Along, Just in Time) will take the stage alone in Jessica Dickey's The Amish Project at the Broadhurst Theater with performances beginning Feb. 10, 2027. Sarna Lapine (Sunday in the Park with George) directs. The play is inspired by a 2006 school shooting which occurred in a small Pennsylvania town near where Groff grew up.

The Amish Project debuted at the New York International Fringe Festival and was developed at the Cherry Lane Theatre before premiering Off-Broadway at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in 2009. It has since become Jessica Dickey’s most-produced play, with productions at the Guthrie Theater (Minneapolis), Milwaukee Rep, American Theater Company (Chicago) and City Theatre (Pittsburgh), among others at theaters around the world.

“20 years ago this month, an unimaginable tragedy happened in a one room Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Jessica Dickey wrote an astounding work of art in response," Groff said in a statement. "Sarna Lapine sent me The Amish Project last year and I was floored by the urgency and potent poetry of Jessica’s writing as she dives headfirst into the many aftershocks of this horrific event and explores the idea that sometimes the most radical human act is forgiveness. I am profoundly grateful to be bringing Jessica’s play to Broadway alongside Sarna and this incredible team.”

Kelli O'Hara and Tom Hanks in
This World of Tomorrow.
Credit: Marc J. Franklin

Tom Hanks will join Tony winner Kelli O'Hara in a Broadway transfer of This World of Tomorrow which he co-wrote with James Glossman, scheduled for fall 2027 at a Shubert theater TBA. This will be the first time Hanks has appeared on Broadway since Nora Ephron's Lucky Guy in 2014. The play previously played The Shed Off-Broadway in 2025. Based on a short story from Hanks' collection Uncommon Type, World of Tomorrow is a sci-fi tale about a scientist from the late 21st century who travel back in time to the the World's Fair of 1939 where he meets and falls in love with a woman named Carmen (O'Hara, reprising her Off-Broadway role). Tony winner Kenny Leon returns to direct.

Off-B'way Update: Tom Hanks Will Star at the Shed

Tom Hanks will star in
This World of Tomorrow, which he co-wrote,
at the Shed this fall.

Tom Hanks joins fellow Oscar winner George Clooney by starring in a NY production of a play he co-wrote. Hanks will headline This World of Tomorrow, which he co-authored with James Glossman, based on a book of Hanks' short stories. Previews begin Oct. 30 at the Griffin Theater at The Shed for a limited run through Dec. 21. The play will be directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon (Othello, Our Town). Hanks will play a scientist from the future who time travels back to the 1939 World's Fair in search of love.

“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,” Hanks said. 

“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,” Leon said.

Drama Desks and Obies

Nominee Laila Robbins (Sorry) and DD winner Richard Kind
(The Big Knife) at the Drama Desk After-Party

This time of year in the New York theater is crazy with the amount of prizes handed out. The week started with a one-two punch of award shows--the Drama Desks on Sunday May 19 and the Obies on Monday May 20. For the last few years, the two have been scheduled this close together and are amazingly different. The DDs honors on, Off- and Off-Off-Broadway and while fairly eclectic in their nominations, the winners tend to be pretty conventional. The Village Voice Obies, which celebrate everything non-Broadway, are anything but conventional. They don't even have categories, just citations for excellence, and they tend to go to the unusual. The DDs are formal with many attendees in tuxes (including me) and gowns while the Obiegoers are pretty casual and usually raucous. Last year, Linda Lavin had to pause in her acceptance speech for The Lyons to get the crowd to settle down. This year, the usually uncorseted Obies were restrained because just a few days earlier the Voice announced that Michael Feingold, its chief theater critic and chairman of the Obie committee, was being laid off. It was an emotional evening as the audience gave Feingold a standing ovation and winner after winner paid tribute to him.

Freaky Friday in TheaterWorld: Voice Firings, Tempest in a Tony Teapot

Michael Feingold

Friday was a pretty overwhelming day. In addition to the fallout from the phone smashing at Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, the Drama League Awards were presented and the Village Voice further cut its staff, firing its chief theater critic, Pulitzer Prize finalist Michael Feingold and popular gossip columnist Michael Musto. I admire both writers greatly and was saddened to hear this distressing news. There was also an emergency meeting of the Tony Administration Committee because producer Jeffrey Richards allegedly violated some silly rule with the brochure he sent out to Tony voters for his production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? All material sent to voters must be approved by the Committee and Richards apparently overlooked this step. Michael Reidel wrote in the Post the meeting was prompted by producer Nelle Nugent whose The Trip to Bountiful is Woolf's biggest competition for the Best Revival of a Play Award. According to Reidel's column, producers can only send Tony voters exactly the same souvenir program theatergoers receive. Richards had a new one made up just for the Tony electorate. It's kind of a stupid rule. As a Tony voter, I received the Virginia Woolf brochure and it's not going to make me vote for it over Bountiful. (I'm deciding between Woolf and Golden Boy, but the brochure is not influencing me one way or the other.)

The Drama League Awards went to Vanya, Sonia, Masha, and Spike, Kinky Boots, Pippin, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (I guess Drama League voters got that same brochure) and to Nathan Lane of The Nance for Distinguished Performance. Earlier this week, Boots won the Outer Critics Circle Award over Matilda. The Drama League win cements Boots' status as the underdog, upset winner for Best Musical at the Tonys. It can't win at the Drama Desks tonight because it's not even nominated for Best Musical, but will probably triumph for Billy Porter's lead performance as Lola. Lane's win, along with his Outer Critics victory, designates him as the front runner for the Tonys, but I still think Tom Hanks has the edge for Lucky Guy because most of the Tony voters are industry people, not critics and they want more movie stars to come to Broadway. It will be interesting to see who wins tonight at the DDs since Lane has already won several times (The Lisbon Traviata, Guys and Dolls, Forum, Producers), they might go for Hanks.

Best Play Tony Race: 'Parties' vs. 'Guy'

Jessica Hecht, Jeremy Shamos, and Judith Light
in The Assembled  Parties
Credit: Joan Marcus

The critics are sharply divided on the just-opened The Assembled Parties from playwright Richard Greenberg and Manhattan Theater Club. Many are positively swooning over it. Ben Brantley of the Times calls it "charming. It is also smart, sad and so impossibly well-spoken you may feel like giving up on conversation." Linda Winer of Newsday thinks it's "vibrant and touching." But there were a few detractors, notably Joe Dziemianowicz of the Daily News and Elisabeth Vincentelli of the Post. Given the many positive notices, and the lack of competition, Parties is now in a position to assume challenger status to Lucky Guy for the Best Play Tony. With its support among certain reviewers, it could win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, setting up a battle between an elitist favorite (Parties) and a populist box-office draw headlined by a Hollywood star (Tom Hanks in Guy).

Tom Hanks and 'Lucky Guy' Tony Frontrunners

Tom Hanks can move his two Oscars to the side of the mantelpiece to make room for the Best Actor in a Play Tony he's bound to win for his Broadway debut in Lucky Guy which opened this week. His closest competition is probably Nathan Lane in The Nance and Tracey Letts in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Lane already has two Tonys (for Forum and The Producers) while Letts' show closed months ago. Hanks gives a terrific performance as the gritty tabloid columnist Mike McAlary. He gets to swear, cry, deal with cancer, get high on booze and morphine, feel guilty for causing a corrupt cop to commit suicide, and deliver a big emotional wrap-up speech at the end. It's got Tony-bait written all over it. I'll probably be voting for Letts whose challenge was greater having to justify the sadomasochistic behavior of George in a play usually dominated by whoever plays Martha.

Lucky itself is a bit of jumble, but it will make great television to have playwright Nora Ephron honored posthumously. So far, The Other Place is its only competition. Grace and Dead Accounts shuttered long ago and Breakfast at Tiffany's got a lukewarm reception. The Nance and The Assembled Parties have yet to open, but I doubt they'll be able to tackle Lucky Guy.

Broadway 2012-13: Busiest but Dullest Season Ever?

Constantine Maroulis and Deborah Cox
in Jekyll and Hyde

With the definite announcement of the Broadway opening of Jekyll and Hyde, we almost have a complete list of the 2012-13 season. If everything comes off as planned there will be a total of 47 new productions, one of the largest in recent memory. There are only two productions which have announced intentions of opening before the Tony deadline without having secured a theater or dates (The Miss Firecracker Contest, The Velocity of Autumn). However, it seems there's a dearth of worthy new plays, with no strong candidate emerging as a contender for the Tony. Many have already shut down including The Anarchist, The Performers, Grace, and Dead Accounts. Lucky Guy is the most anticipated non-tuner, mainly because double-Oscar winner Tom Hanks is headlining.