Award-winning actor/producer Tom Hanks has played many roles in his illustrious career: a police detective, astronauts, a castaway, a WWII soldier, a gay lawyer, a toy sheriff, Santa Claus, a cross-dressing advertising junior executive, Walt Disney, and Fred Rogers. He’s about to add time traveller to that list.

The play 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.

This World of Tomorrow will premiere at The Shed theatre in New York City, October 20, 2025. The play is scheduled to run until December 21,2025. While this may see of little interest save to those in or near New York City, if the play does well, it may move on to Broadway. It might go on tour or be reproduced in London’s West End. It might eventually be filmed.

The production is co-written by Hanks and James Glossman, based on short stories written by Tom Hanks, and will be directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon. Tickets go on sale on July 24 (Shed member presale begins on July 15). For tickets and additional information about the production and memberships for presale access, visit TheShed.org.

This will be Tom Hanks’ first on stage performance since 2018, when he played Falstaff in William Shakespeare’s Henry IV. In his Broadway debut in 2013, he earned a Tony nomination for Best Actor.

We like Tom Hanks. Not only did he play astronaut Jim Lovell in Apollo 13 (1995) and voice Sheriff Woody in Disney’s Toy Story (1995) and all its sequels, he’s as big a space travel geek as we are. He hosted and produced the mini-series From the Earth to the Moon.