Doug Pawlik and Tom Hanks | Photo courtesy of Doug Pawlik

Tom Hanks spent his Super Bowl Sunday taking in The Hypocrites 2 pm matinee of PIRATES OF PENZANCE at the Pasadena Playhouse with his son Colin and wife Rita Wilson.

Director Sean Graney’s acclaimed promenade imagination of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta has played Washington D.C., New York, Boston, and now LA, as well as its original run and remount in Chicago. The show plays the Pasadena Playhouse through February 25, and heads back to the D.C. area this Summer.

Colin Hanks, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson with the cast of The Hypocrites’ PIRATES OF PENZANCE | Photo courtesy of the Pasadena Playhouse

PIRATES actor Doug Pawlik said that the Hanks family is “nicer than any family you’ve ever met.” Pawlik has also played the role of the Conductor in Chicago’s THE POLAR EXPRESS experience at Union Station, the role Hanks originated in the film. He had the “surreal experience” of showing hanks a photo of himself playing the character.

J.K. Simmons — star of Law & Order, Oz, and Farmer’s Insurance commercials — attended Sunday’s 7 pm performance. Alfred Molina, Kate Burton (Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal), Melora Hardin (The Office, Transparent), and Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle) have also attended recent performances.