It’s not a review, just overheard– last night’s first preview of Nora Ephron‘s “Lucky Guy” is said to have been a total success. Tom Hanks plays late New York reporter Mike McAlary, whose roller coaster career included a Pulitzer Prize and an early, tragic death. This is Ephron’s last work. Some people worried that without her in rehearsals, “Lucky Guy” might suffer. Not at all, apparently. Ephron has left a tidy, well wrought work according to those who saw it last night. Hanks and the entire cast are getting kudos.
The play is likely going to win Best Play, as well, at the Tonys. Nora Ephron, much loved and missed, will be beaming with smiles from heaven.
The play reunites Hanks with Ephron– they made “Sleepless in Seattle” and “You’ve Got Mail” together, two modern classics. It also reunites Hanks with Peter Scolari, his old pal. They started together in TV with “Bosom Buddies.” Another “Bosom Buddies” castmate, Holland Taylor, is down the street, in “Ann,” a one woman show about Ann Richards. Theater season is here. Hanks has two Oscars. Now he can add a Tony, maybe, to his collection of gold statues. Tickets are selling for than two hundred clams, by the way!