‘This World of Tomorrow’ Off Broadway Review: Tom Hanks Makes ’em Like They Used To

It’s not surprising that a famous actor, best known for his many screen performances, would write a play that’s really a screenplay.

What is surprising is how much that play resembles a movie … from the 1940s. Tom Hanks and James Grossman’s “This World of Tomorrow,” based on short stories by Hanks, opened Tuesday at The Shed.

A disillusioned scientist (Hanks) from the future travels back to 1939 to visit the World’s Fair in New York City. There, he meets a divorcee (Kelli O’Hara, being utterly charming) and they fall in love over the course of several more visits to the fair, as well as a Greek diner in 1953. The story is so retro it’s new. Nothing else has been seen like this sweet exercise in nostalgia on the stage in years. In comparison, any Disney musical would appear to throw off shades of Kafka. “This World of Tomorrow” is real Frank Capra corn. Whether or not it’s very good Capra corn, that depends on how many bags of sugar you require for your morning coffee. Even Capra made a few clunkers.

Playing the scientist, Hanks channels his inner Jimmy Stewart from Capra classics like “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The much darker James Stewart of Alfred Hitchcock’s films never dares show his face in this two-hour 15-minute time-travel fantasy.

The humor depends entirely on 20-20 hindsight. The scientist, the divorcee and her obnoxious niece (Kayli Carter, being obnoxious) visit a fair exhibition that predicts what the world will be in the year 1960. They all receive an “I Saw the Future” button. No surprise, the scientist knows what’s really going to happen, and his oblique but spot-on remarks about the future provoke mild giggles of recognition from the audience.

Kenny Leon directs.

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