Tom Hanks makes his Broadway debut in LUCKY GUY by Nora Ephron.
Nora Ephron's LUCKY GUY marks a return to her journalistic roots in a new play about the scandal- and graffiti-ridden New York of the 1980s, as told through the story of the charismatic and controversial tabloid columnist Mike McAlary.
From his sensational reporting of New York's major police corruption to the libel suit that nearly ended his career, the play dramatizes the story of McAlary's meteoric rise, fall and rise again, ending with his coverage of the Abner Louima case for which he won the Pulitzer Prize, shortly before his untimely death on Christmas Day, 1998.
By the end of 'Lucky Guy,' you're going to like Tom Hanks a lot more than Mike McAlary, the tabloid byline he plays with magnetic appeal in his Broadway debut. That's exactly as it's meant to be. Hanks: Good-guy hero. McAlary: Hero, maybe. Good guy? Well, that's the more complicated issue that Nora Ephron was getting at when she wrote this valentine to the New York tabloid wars of the 1980s and '90s along with the reporter who best exemplified them.
Wolfe stages the play-propelled by direct-address narration from McAlary's fellow journos (forming a kind of f-bomb-dropping Greek chorus)-at a furious clip. Split scenes, video projection and rapid cuts bridge the stylistic gap between the movie this material started as and the scrappy, vibrant urban drama it became. The hero of this latter-day Front Pagedied at the cusp of a new age, one of news aggregators, blogs and camera phones-not to mention plummeting ad dollars and circulation numbers. He and his fellow media dinosaurs didn't live to see what a bloodless hash the Internet would make of city news. Maybe they are the lucky ones.
2013 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2013 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Tom Hanks |
2013 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Tom Hanks |
2013 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Courtney B. Vance |
2013 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play | 0 |
2013 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Play | Tom Hanks |
2013 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Play | 0 |
2013 | Theatre World Awards | Theatre World Award | Tom Hanks |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Play | George C. Wolfe |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Play | Peggy Eisenhauer |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Play | Jules Fisher |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | Courtney B. Vance |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | Tom Hanks |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Play | William Berlind |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Nora Ephron |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Play | The Shubert Organization |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Sonia Friedman Productions |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Scott and Brian Zeilinger |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Play | James D. Stern/Douglas L. Meyer |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Play | The Shubert Organization |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Sonia Friedman Productions |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Scott and Brian Zeilinger |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Play | James D. Stern/Douglas L. Meyer |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Frederick Zollo |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Daryl Roth |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Play | David Mirvish |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Robert Cole |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Stacey Mindich |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Roger Berlind |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Arielle Tepper Madover |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Roy Furman |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Colin Callender |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Play | David Rockwell |
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