Tom Hanks Prepares for New Off-Broadway Play He Co-Wrote and Will Star in: See the Behind-the-Scenes Photos

Tom Hanks is back in the rehearsal room.

New photos released on Thursday, Oct. 9 show the two-time Oscar winner preparing for This World of Tomorrow, the new Off-Broadway play he co-wrote and will star in. It’s set to premiere Oct. 30 at The Shed in New York City, and will have an eight-week limited run through Dec. 21.

“Snapped by photographer Marc J. Franklin, the pictures capture Hanks in action with his costars, offering a glimpse of the camaraderie and creative energy fueling the new production.

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Hanks, 69, takes on the lead role of Bert Allenberry in the play, performing alongside Tony Award winner Kelli O’Hara. The cast also features Kerry Bishé, Kayli Carter, Paul Murphy, Jamie Ann Romero, Lee Aaron Rosen, Jay O. Sanders, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Donald Webber Jr. and Michelle Wilson.

Many of those stars will taken on multiple roles in the play, which Hanks penned with James Glossman. The two previously collaborated on 2022’s Safe Home, a stage piece also based on stories from Hanks’s 2017 book, Uncommon Type.

Blending romance, history and a touch of science fiction, This World of Tomorrow follows a lonely scientist from the future who travels back in time to the 1939 World’s Fair in Queens in search of love.

It marks Hanks’s first stage role since his 2013 Broadway debut in Lucky Guy, which earned him a Tony nomination. He’s been working with Shed to develop This World of Tomorrow over the past year.

Kenny Leon is directing the new production. The Tony winner had two hit revivals on the boards last season: the stagings of Our Town and Othello (the latter which starred Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal)

“I’m excited to collaborate with the remarkable Tom Hanks on his and James Glossman’s new play at The Shed this fall,” Leon said back in May, when the production was announced. “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.”

Alex Poots, artistic director at The Shed, told the New York Times that Hanks’s team reached out last year about developing the project at the venue. He didn’t hesitate.

“He’s one of the most beloved and trusted storytellers of our time,” Poots said to the outlet, calling the play “a classic love story” that also nods to the global unrest brewing in 1939.

Tickets to This World of Tomorrow are now on sale.