Lucky Guy

        When it was first announced that Tom Hanks would be making his Broadway debut in a new play, I cannot deny that I was excited. How could I not be? Hollywood does not make celebrities anymore, not the way that it used to, but Tom Hanks is one of the few remaining true Hollywood stars. It's not often that I get star struck for the sake of celebrity alone, but Tom Hanks is an exception to that rule.

       The time has come, and Mr. Hanks has now made his debut. I waited in line for over an hour to receive a ticket to stand in the back of the theater (the show is sold out nearly every night). Tom Hanks was as wonderful on stage as he is on screen. He is warm and charismatic, even when playing a character with few endearing qualities (as he happens to be doing in Lucky Guy). 

      All that being said, the entire experience was a bit disappointing. Lucky Guy is the final work of Nora Ephron, the beloved and revered film and play writer. Ms. Ephron was a fine lady, and much has been expostulated about her and her work on screen and off so I wont go into all of that here. The play is not exceptionally good. It's not bad, it's just not anything special.

   The story concerns Mike McAlary (pronounced MACaLary), and his rise to fame in the New York tabloid news paper business in the 80's and 90's. McAlary was a real person who lived and breathed, and much of what we see has been reconstructed from interviews and biographies and the like. Some of it is fiction from Nora Ephron's own time spent as a journalist during that period.

   More than the story of Mike McAlary, Nora Ephron is telling the story of the demise of News Paper journalism. She is using this story as a history lesson to show how new papers are no longer a relevant source of first hand news (and a little bit of why that is). It's not that this isn't an interesting subject matter, or that the play is not well written. The problem that I had with it is that it isn't much of a play at all.

      Ms. Ephron has opted for long monologues that tell you what happened rather than show you what happened. A lot of the characters are under served and a lot of fine actors under utilized (Mr. Hanks included) as a result.

   Courtney B. Vance comes off the best as he gets to deliver most of the monologues as Hap Hairston, McAlary's friend and sometimes boss. Maura Tierney is terribly underused as Mike McAlary's long suffering wife. There are many opportunities missed in that particular relationship.

    The play covers a long expanse of time, almost 10 or 15 years to be exact, perhaps even 20. I can understand the need for some expository monologues so as to catch the audience up on what happened in the mean time. Some other people may not have minded all of the monologues but it has always been my preference to see things happen than to hear about them.

    George C. Wolfe keeps things moving at a clip and has very smartly directed the piece. All of the acting performances are great - you only wish, as I said previously, that some of them had more stage time. The set and lighting design are both great, though nothing particularly wonderful.

   Lucky Guy has been nominated for 6 Tony awards. It has extended it's run at The Broadhurst Theater twice. Depending on the actors filming schedules and how it does at The Tony's on June 9th, you might expect it to extend for a third and final time. The show is currently scheduled to conclude it's run on July 3rd, 2013.