Tom Hanks to make his Broadway debut in Nora Ephron play

Tom Hanks will make his Broadway debut in April in a new play written by the late Nora Ephron. “Lucky Guy” is scheduled to open at the Broadhurst Theatre on April 1 for a limited run. The production, directed by George C. Wolfe, will have a rather long preview period of a month.

“Lucky Guy” is based on the life of tabloid journalist Mike McAlary, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for his commentary on the Abner Louima scandal that ran in the New York Daily News. Hanks will play the colorful journalist, who died of cancer the same year.

Hanks had been rumored to star in the play since this summer. Ephron, who died in June at 71, was a journalist in New York before she moved into screenwriting. The late writer penned two movies starring Hanks -- “Sleepless in Seattle” and “You’ve Got Mail.”

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Producers have not announced how long “Lucky Guy” will run. Additional casting has not been announced.

The two-time Oscar-winning Hanks has never appeared on Broadway before. In Los Angeles, he has been active with the Shakespeare Center of L.A., acting in benefit performances with his wife, Rita Wilson.

Hanks’ son Colin appeared on Broadway in the play “33 Variations” in 2009. Wilson performed in a 2010 production of “Love, Loss and What I Wore,” written by Nora Ephron and her sister, Delia, at the Geffen Playhouse.

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