When Tom Hanks first appears as the time-traveling lead character in This World of Tomorrow—possibly the most listless play in New York this Fall—the audience breaks out into the now-customary ripple of applause accorded to a celebrity’s first appearance on stage.

If this round of applause sounds a little tentative, it might be because people are wondering if it’s really Hanks. His character, Bert Allenberry, sports a visually discombobulating grey wig. Under its smoothly parted thatch, it is indeed the movie star; as soon as Bert opens his mouth, we hear the craggily folksy, reassuring timbre of America’s ur-dad.

But the thrill is short-lived. While it is quite the coup to tempt Hanks back to the stage—after his Tony-nominated Broadway run playing journalist Mike McAlary in Nora Ephro

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