BWW EXCLUSIVE: Neil Patrick Harris on COMPANY: IN CONCERT, Sondheim, GLEE, HAROLD & KUMAR & More

Conquering the Broadway stage in ASSASSINS, CABARET and PROOF; commanding the attention of Radio City (and the world) at the 2009 Tony Awards; racking up rave reviews for SWEENEY TODD at the NY Philharmonic and RENT on tour, plus directing the latter last year at the Hollywood Bowl - these are just a few of the reasons why Neil Patrick Harris made COMPANY: LIVE IN CONCERT, with the NY Philharmonic, one of the biggest nights on Broadway this - or any - year. With recent news confirming that the star-studded Lonny Prince-directed concert production of the timeless 1970 Stephen Sondheim/George Furth concept musical comedy would be filmed for release in movie theaters nationwide for airings in June, it has now become the theatrical event of the season world-wide when it opens in 500+ cinemas. Last night, Neil was kind enough to take some time out to talk about what the work of Stephen Sondheim means to him, his take on the tricky central role of Bobby, as well as working with his celebrated co-stars Patti LuPone, Stephen Colbert, Christina Hendricks, and more, on this exceptionally exciting entertainment event! Plus, we take a look back at some of his past roles - plus, will he be returning in his Emmy-winning part of Bryan Ryan on GLEE? - and a look ahead to the season finale of his smash hit CBS comedy HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, and the third film in the HAROLD & KUMAR series, A VERY HAROLD & KUMAR CHRISTMAS, coming later this year - in addition to news on his self-directed pilot just completed - as well as a whole lot more! We also have a discussion on what roles Neil wants to tackle next - MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, perhaps? What about BARNUM? A solo album? Yet, one vital question remains above all else...

What Would We Do Without Neil?

PC: You have so many fans on BroadwayWorld - and around the world. How does it feel to be a king of Broadway?

NPH: Hah! I wish! It feels like... I need to take more voice lessons. (Laughs.)

PC: When I interviewed Stephen Sondheim recently he cited ASSASSINS as "the most perfect production" of one of his musicals. Tell me about working on that production, 9/11 included.

NPH: ASSASSINS was epic. It was a constant tease, because, you know, I got asked to do The Balladeer and Lee Harvey Oswald in the first reading of it for the revival, at the Roundabout Reading Space - and that was ages ago. And, it seemed like a fais de complet - it was gonna happen - but, then, 9/11 happened. Then, it got postponed. Then, we did another workshop and then that didn't happen. So, when it ended up actually happening I was over the moon.

PC: The first Broadway production of it, to boot.

NPH: Yeah, and, I mean, it's rare that you get to work with a guy of that caliber when he's still around to give you creative ideas during the process. You couple that with Joe Mantello's sort of dynamite direction and, then, this crazy cast of high octane actors - I was both excited and cringing at what would potentially transpire.

PC: It was a real ensemble of personalities.

NPH: You know, everyone got along really well, for as many extroverts as you had in that cast. Everyone really honored the material and canceled each other out.

PC: Denis O'Hare told me the chemistry was truly unique on that production. So diverse - yet, you all made it come together every night.

NPH: Right? This weird and wonderful love fest!

PC: Precisely.

NPH: I'm serious! You have some big personalities in that ensemble, but everyone just honored the material. And, as you know, the material was not well-received by many audiences.

PC: Not at all.

NPH: That was its own whole education.

PC: In what ways?

NPH: Well, when you're in it, you go from thinking it's this big, successful revival that everyone loves - but, just when you thought it was a great show and you come out for applause, people were actively not applauding because they were offended by the material.

PC: What did they do?

NPH: Well, I mean, people would get up and shake their fists and walk out during the bows. Then, there are people right next to them who are completely gob smacked and crying.

PC: Did it really close because of politics involving the Republican National Convention coming to town at the time?

NPH: Well, listen, conspiracy theories abound whenever you're doing anything assassins and presidential. (Laughs.)

PC: (Laughs.) Touché!

NPH: I could certainly appreciate at the time that having a city filled with billboards that say "ASSASSINS" - written all over buses, subway stations filled with the word "ASSASSINS" everywhere (Laughs.) - probably not the greatest thing during a time of political change!

PC: Right show; wrong time.

NPH: Yeah, bad timing. The whole show suffered from bad timing.

PC: But that doesn't tarnish any of your memories of it?

NPH: You know, yeah, it was bad timing - and, yet, I love its limited, finite run because it made it another one of those events that if you happened to have been there during that pocket of time you got to see it and experience it. It didn't run and change casts five times and become its own different show - it was a complete experience. And, for that, I am grateful.

PC: Talk about besting the chandelier in PHANTOM or the broom in WICKED - the Zapruder footage projected on your T-shirt as Lee Harvey Oswald is now a great moment in Broadway history. Unforgettable.

NPH: It very much affirmed in me that energy can transfer from a group to an individual, because when I stood there looking out at a flickering light and feeling people - you could really, actively feel people reacting; not even audibly, you could just feel them being moved one way or the other by what was happening on my chest. And, that was something to look forward to every night.

PC: From projected on your chest, to projecting your heart: Lee Harvey Oswald in ASSASSINS to Bobby in COMPANY. What a transition - but, that's Sondheim, though, right?

NPH: That's Sondheim. You know, Sondheim is so difficult, and that's what makes it so desirable to me. That's the draw. It's not something you can just pick up the script and do. The songs themselves are structured in such complicated ways that you have to know not only every note and every stanza, but you have to know why it's raising a quarter note here and a half-note there; you have to do a lot of research. You owe it to yourself and you owe it to the show to do a lot of research.

PC: It's part of the journey to finding the character.

NPH: Yeah, and, so, that's what makes it super-fulfilling and super-gratifying - but also terrifying. And, when you are dealing with something like COMPANY - where you are essentially doing a fully-realized production of the show in ten days, two weeks - then the terror level rises because you are being judged on your thought-processes and decision-making when it is very, very truncated. So, it was hard for me to wrap my head around Bobby - in many ways, I guess - because you really need six, eight weeks to figure everything out.

PC: It's a complex character to portray - one of the most.

NPH: We were flying on instinct a lot, and I don't love doing that in front of 3500 people at a time.

PC: Did you feel by Saturday you had hit your stride? Or, were you challenged as much then as on the first night?

NPH: I had never felt more overwhelmed by the breadth and the magnitude of the material than on this - it almost destroyed me. (Slight laugh.)

PC: One wouldn't know it from your performance.

NPH: I mean, when I arrived - I'm sure you read in the Times or whatever that we all were learning things very part-and-parcel, all over the country; I was in LA and Lonny and Josh flew to LA and we worked on numbers and blocking with me by myself in a rehearsal room.

PC: How alienating. What actors did you get to rehearse with?

NPH: I worked with Chrissy - Christina Hendricks - a bit because she was in LA. Then, Lonny and Josh flew back to New York and then I went right back to HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER. They continued rehearsing in New York. So, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER wrapped on a Friday night; on Saturday morning, early, I flew to New York and went right to rehearsal at like 4 o'clock in the afternoon, relatively under-prepared because I had another job I was working on.

PC: A new TV pilot you are working on, right?

NPH: I have a new pilot I am directing; yes. So, I arrived with 120 pages of material I should have had memorized, I guess - everyone else had memorized everything already. So, I jumped into, you know, eight hours of rehearsal a day - under-nourished in every way and kind of starting to panic as they went along. (Laughs.)

PC: The run-throughs were smooth for them, then?

NPH: I mean, I'm sitting there with Stephen Colbert and Martha Plimpton and they are perfect - they know every bit and beat and moment and sight gag; and they've learned karate - and, I'm literally looking at the stage managers going, "What number do I go to now?" (Laughs.)

PC: That is hilarious - and scary.

NPH: That happened all week long! And, even by the dress rehearsal, which was the afternoon of the Thursday we did our first performance - I was woefully under-prepared.

PC: What happened?

NPH: Well, I was calling out "Line" at the dress rehearsal and flubbing lyrics. It's a lot. You forget that Bobby never leaves anything and that it is, essentially, five, kind of one-act, plays, because it is non-linear - so, the scene with Harry and Sarah then doesn't inform him in his next scene with David and Jenny.

PC: Conceptually and emotionally.

NPH: Yes. It was a very strange role for me to wrap my head around. (Pause.) I don't mean to be making excuses - and I don‘t want you to interpret it that way.

PC: Not at all.

NPH: I just feel like that, for something like this: you want to come in, guns-a-blazing; and, I came in still, you know, figuring out how to build a gun.

PC: What a perfect way to put it, Lee.

NPH: (Laughs.)

PC: Ellen Krass did this column and broke the news to me that she was going to produce this concert and she said it was all because she had the perfect Bobby - and, surely, you came through on that promise.

NPH: Thanks. I have to say that my favorite part of acting - of every type - is the rehearsal period for a musical; for theatre. It's its own little world of everyone being together as a gang - there are no outside observers. You get to sail together and learn together and grow, and you become a family and you really feel like that by the time you are really running through the show that you've reached this milestone together. And, unfortunately, the nature of the way COMPANY was rehearsed was kind of the antithesis of that - you know, learning at our own speeds and just hoping that when we were doing the relay race that we could just run fast and catch each other's hands with the baton.

PC: But you settled into it by Saturday, clearly.

NPH: Yeah, I am really glad that by Saturday I felt like it was more in my bones. Now, or soon after - on Sunday morning, the hilarious realization was that it was done. (Laughs.)

PC: Isn't that the way it always goes?

NPH: Right when we felt like, "Great! Great! Let's do this thing!" - it's finished.

PC: There's also the added stressful component of being filmed for Blu-ray, DVD, and soon to be broadcast in cinemas. It's the first live Sondheim show to be shown in cinemas, too.

NPH: Yeah - and I appreciate it! I mean, I remember when I was in Ruidoso, New Mexico - which is a small ski resort town where I grew up - and VHS tapes were brand new. I remember being in elementary school and renting THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES that they did at Lincoln Center back in the day - with Swoozie Kurtz - and watching that one performance that they recorded and it having a great impact on me. So, I did feel, not the pressure, but I did feel the obligation to represent to people who might get to see it years from now.

PC: And between COMPANY, ASSASSINS and EVENING PRIMROSE - along with SWEENEY TODD - you now have done many of Sondheim's most personal pieces. What drew you to PRIMROSE? Had you seen the Anthony Perkins film?

NPH: I had seen it and I liked the ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS nature of it. (Pause.) That [recording] came about so, so randomly and I am really not a trained operatic singer, so that was a case of I couldn't believe it was happening, you know?

PC: The Sondheim-approved recording of the score, as well.

NPH: We recorded it in that old recording studio, that I don't think exists anymore - that one on like 9th Ave and 50th St. That famous one. You take that big wooden elevator up to it.

PC: The Hit Factory.

NPH: The Hit Factory! Yeah! That's exactly right. But, I don't think that's there anymore.

PC: I don't think so, either.

NPH: Yeah. So, anyway, here I am, singing these Sondheim songs with him in the booth and this giant orchestra playing live while I'm recording these songs - and, I'm thinking, "I'm this guy on a TV show, what is happening to me?!"

PC: A "Wow!" moment. Was Jonathan Tunick there, too?

NPH: Tunick was there! I kept thinking about the COMPANY: MAKING THE CAST ALBUM video when they were recording all the tracks for COMPANY. (Laughs.)

PC: What a meta-narrative for this article!

NPH: (Laughs.) Sondheim has spun my mind around my own head more than a handful of times!

PC: Is it true a documentary crew followed you in rehearsals and backstage, behind-the-scenes, on this COMPANY as well?

NPH: Yeah, well, I think as part of the DVD there were cameras all over the place. There's not a lot on me because I kept saying, "Eh, let's not do cameras because I am freaking out!" (Big Laugh.)

PC: Have you seen the footage from the filming yet?

NPH: No, no.

PC: I have to ask: what was it like working with Patti LuPone?

NPH: Oh, well, Patti was great - but, again, she was doing concerts that whole final week. She didn't even get there until... I mean, we didn't even run it. The dress rehearsal ended after her song, "Ladies Who Lunch", because we were out of time.

PC: No way! No "Being Alive"?

NPH: No! We weren't even able to do that scene after "Ladies Who Lunch" - my scene into "Being Alive". The first time we had even ever done it onstage with everybody all together was the first performance.

PC: How terrifying! So, you just jumped into it full-throttle?

NPH: Well, thankfully, I know Patti and I adore her and I trusted her and the fact that she would be one hundred thousand percent there - which she was!

PC: You can say that again.

NPH: I think her performance was so nuanced, yet as broad as it was supposed to be, and angry - I mean, tears were streaming down her face when she finished that song. It was really kind of remarkable how she was able to harness that energy. (Pause.) She's really something else and I am really blessed to have been Toby to her Mrs. Lovett and Bobby and to her Joanne.

PC: And, Christina Hendricks and "Barcelona"? What chemistry!

NPH: I just felt like I was acting with Marilyn Monroe the entire time.

PC: She's so beautiful.

NPH: So beautiful, but she also has that airy quality, you know? No matter how she says something or what she says, you are just transfixed by her! And, again, she had never done anything like this - and, bless her heart, she deserved six weeks of rehearsals to try and figure out how to do it - and, yet, she performed and gave such a hypnotic, nuanced performance. I was so proud of her - I am a friend in real life and I know that she worked real hard on all of it and it was nice that people responded so well.

PC: You two should do cross-over episodes of your shows - you bring her to GLEE and HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, and you can do a turn on MAD MEN.

NPH: Wow! That would be so cool.

PC: It was so cool when they used to do that in the seventies.

NPH: So cool.

PC: Tell me about working with Stephen Colbert on COMPANY.

NPH: Stephen Colbert was like the most professional, selfless, nicest guy. We share a voice coach in Liz Caplan and he offered up his entire STEPHEN COLBERT SHOW studio in the mornings. So, the week of and the week before I would go to his studio and I'd sing with Liz from, you know, eight to nine - there by ourselves in a big empty studio - then, he would come in and do nine to ten. And, he let me borrow his car to take me back to set to keep rehearsing.

PC: That's so nice of him.

NPH: He is just this super-true gentleman. (Pause.) And, talk about someone who is an over-achiever! He was having to do like three shows in a row on the Wednesday, the day before the first Thursday when we did the show. I guess it speaks to either his love of either Sondheim or theatre or COMPANY that he would be able to commit the time to do this - because he is just so busy - and, yet, his performance, I think, was so great.

PC: He really connects to the material - clearly.

NPH: And, I have to say, it was great fun to be able to watch him and see how he panics and, you know, what's going on in his mind because we are all so accustomed to Stephen Colbert being hyper in-charge of his world.

PC: Totally - see him with his guard down a bit.

NPH: Especially on his show, as you know: the false bravado is the bit. But, when you are actually interacting with him and getting sandwiched in between he and Martha [Plimpton] in the kung foo fight, or asking him to sing a ballad to you ["Sorry-Grateful"] - it was kind of nice to kind of get to know him more as a person. (Pause.) I think we were all very lucky to see that side of him.

PC: Was Sondheim involved in the rehearsals?

NPH: Not at all, but he was there for dress rehearsal on Thursday afternoon.

PC: What did he say after the performance?

NPH: Well, the lights came up and I stumbled to him, saying (Pleading.) "Please help me! I need to hear something out of your mouth about what is supposed to happen tonight!" (Laughs.)

PC: "Someone hold me too close," right?

NPH: (Big Laugh.) Exactly! Exactly. And, he had some wonderful gems that were so helpful and delineated our show and, I think, his core intentions with the show from other incarnations - which I needed at that time.

PC: Everyone sees Bobby differently. Raul Esparza told me his take, can you give me yours in comparison to his?

NPH: Yeah, well, the John Doyle production was so serious and naturalistic and, almost, bleak, you know?

PC: Brechtian, really.

NPH: It was hard to use that as any source material for me, just by the nature of it being a full orchestra with that sound and a concert production and Lonny. So, I couldn't really use that production as a reference. And, then, it was hard to not play the role and be informed by the scene that preceded what I am doing.

PC: The non-linear nature.

NPH: Yeah, I couldn't quite figure out when I am looking out during all the "Bobby, baby/ Bobby, bubby"'s happening in between the songs - what is Bobby thinking about? He's not just staring out into space. So, is he thinking about how, "I thought that their marriage, which was good, was actually fractured - did they always act passive-aggressively and I didn't realize that, but now I do? So, by the end, did all these interpretations of marriage that I thought were good actually bad, and, that's why I finally say, ‘What do you get?'"

PC: So many questions arise.

NPH: Yeah, so, I was trying to play that - but, it all felt very dark and woe-is-me. So, then, I would wonder, "Why does anyone want to be his friend if he is so dark?"

PC: What did Sondheim say?

NPH: Steve said, "Imagine that you are looking at pictures in a scrapbook, and, by the definition of looking through a scrapbook: sometimes you just open the scrapbook in the middle and look at that page; sometimes you go from the back to the front and you look at it that way. So, that's what these stories are - you are just kind of opening up to another page and looking at the pictures on them." Then, he said to me two more things which were very, very helpful.

PC: Which are?

NPH: One, he said, "Maybe Bobby is looking at these photos on the wall that he references at the beginning. He's looking and he goes, ‘Oh, yeah, look! There's Harry and Sarah - remember that time that we had that karate thing?'" And, that is when he is looking out and looking up.

PC: During the "Bobby, baby"'s.

NPH: Yeah. When he said that, I thought, "Oh, there it is! That gives me an anchor." So, I was looking during all of those scenes - like, we'd finish the scene and I would play back out and the "Bobby"'s would happen and, then, I could just go back to whatever that second was and, then, go "Oh, yeah, that was funny when that happened," and, then, "Oh, yeah, remember that couple over here?" And, then, look at the actual photos on the wall. That was my take on it.

PC: Genius.

NPH: That all came from him - and, it just gave me something to play so I wasn't just feeling like I was on AMERICAN IDOL looking out into the world and into the spotlight.

PC: What other insights did Sondheim share with you?

NPH: The other big thing, he also said, "COMPANY is the story of a boy becoming a man." He said that, "Bobby is a boy and that kind of youthful, boyish energy is why they all want to have him around - they don't want him to be a man and tell them lessons and teach them things. They want him around because he is fun. Then, at the end, he has his catharsis." That really freed me up, because I was trying to play him more of a bachelor-man that just wanted to be free and needed to learn about relationships. To have Mr. Sondheim allow me to be more of a kind of man-child - like a fun kid - that really allowed me in the "Company" and "Side By Side" numbers to just be more myself and have more fun with it. I think, then, the turn seems more specific when, at the end, he reveals more about himself and the "Bobby"'s become painful to hear.

PC: How provocative! Mind-blowing, really; those insights. How do you trace the journey of Bobby's three big solos, "Someone Is Waiting" to "Marry Me A Little" to "Being Alive"? Is a whole character's journey in just those songs?

NPH: Yeah, sort of. You know, "Someone Is Waiting" - I always thought it was just kind of a little bit of a sad song, you know? You don't sing it like it's sad, but you sing it like, "No, no, no - this person's out there! They're crazy [for saying one isn't]. I know I can meet some person with the personality of this woman that I know and the looks of this person and the smarts of that - someone is out there that's just like that!" And, that exuberant naiveté is kind of sad when you watch it, like, "Oh, Bobby! You'll eventually know that that doesn't exist." Then, later he sings "Marry Me A Little", which is like a step forward - it's like, "OK, instead of finding the perfect person, let's just you and I get married and we'll just do the good parts of it and not the whole part of it." And, I was asked to sing it with great legitimacy - you know, like, "No, this is how it can be! I believe it!"; as opposed to with irony, when I am singing, "I know that it shouldn't be this way, but I would like it to be this way."

PC: How do you see it yourself?

NPH: I think Bobby is saying, "Let's do this. This could happen. I can do this - I can get married, so long as it is like this." Which, again, makes you feel like you want him to change. And, then, as he changes in Act Two, you are rooting for him for that - even if the change is painful.

PC: And "Barcelona" is the little detour on the trip and, then, he can make the commitment to commit in "Being Alive".

NPH: But, again, this is what is so tricky - like what you are saying, that detour: that could have happened a year before the other scene where he sang "Marry Me A Little". Remember, Bobby is looking at these pictures on the wall. So, that was hard to wrap my head around - like, "Wait, I've already sung this song, so I already thought that I should get married a little," and, then "Barcelona" happens, though, so, I'm like, "Now, what happened?" And I'm like, "Wait! No, no - "Barcelona" could have happened before." So, the non-linear-ness is tricky.

PC: Thus it being the ultimate concept musical - and the best.

NPH: Well, listen - it's rife for interpretation! So, there is no right answer - especially says Steve. That photos-on-the-wall thing is not like, "I'll tell you what I've never told anyone before!" He actually said to me when he was telling me that, "I've never thought this before, but maybe it's this." Which, for me, was incredibly helpful - but, certainly, isn't the way it is supposed to always be done. I am just beyond incredibly grateful that he is around to be able to give me things to think about - I think that's the rarity. And, success or not, that makes it a very valuable experience for me.

PC: And, of course, with ASSASSINS Sondheim rewrote his own rules for the concept musical set down with COMPANY.

NPH: Yeah! Yeah! True dat! True dat! Now, let's have some fun with MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG! Then, my life will really be complete!

PC: Definitely! As Frank?

NPH: I don't know! Or... I don‘t know....

PC: Charlie?

NPH: Yeah, Charlie's a great part, too!

PC: "Franklin Shepard, Inc."? What a performance piece!

NPH: It's a great number. I mean, I'm more like a Charlie than a Frank. But, Frank has - again - a really thankless and very interesting track. (Pause.) I am just a big fan of structure - I think that's why Steve and I get along, because he is a gamesman and the structure-guy, and so am I, so, to try and take on something like maybe doing a musical in reverse? That just blows my mind whole.

PC: I think it should be filmed in a TV studio. It may work best on film.

NPH: Oh, that would be so cool! Love. Love.

PC: Moving to TV: are you coming back to GLEE?

NPH: No plans yet!

PC: What about DR. HORRIBLE 2 with your GLEE director Joss Whedon?

NPH: No plans yet, but I hear that they are constantly dabbling and writing new songs. They have a bit of a story outline that I don't think has become a fully-formed script yet. You know, the problem is that we keep getting big jobs, and, Joss [Whedon] now has the biggest job of anyone with THE AVENGERS film - which is a gigantic, gigantic movie.

PC: For sure.

NPH: I only have three and a half or four months off a year when I'm not doing HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER and Nathan Fillion is now on the successful CASTLE, so he only has a short hiatus - I am sure all the stars will align eventually.

PC: Would you consider doing a superhero movie?

NPH: (Deadpan.) Yeah, in all my copious free time I'll try and do a superhero movie! (Laughs.)

PC: A VERY HAROLD AND KUMAR CHRISTMAS is coming up, though!

NPH: That's true! That's true. I did do that. That's gonna be pretty funny - and in 3D! I may have a musical number - I am just sayin'!

PC: Can you give me a clue as to what it is?

NPH: I can give you no more clues, sir! (Laughs.)

PC: Since you both sang it on THE VIEW, are you and Jason Segal ever going to do LES MIZ - you as Valjean and him as Javert?

NPH: (Big Laugh.) Umm, I don't know! Doesn't he look more like Colm Wilkinson than I? Wouldn't he really be the Valjean?

PC: The new LIVE FROM THE 02 production had Norm Lewis as Javert and Alfie Boe as Valjean.

NPH: I bought it on DVD! I bought it on Blu-ray, actually!

PC: No way!

NPH: If only so I could watch Nick Jonas.

PC: Are you a Jonas Brothers fan?

NPH: (Laughs.) I am a fan of Nick.

PC: Ramin Karimloo and Lea Salonga were astounding, I thought.

NPH: Yeah, I thought it was cool. I mean, that was my first musical so I have a very soft spot in my heart for LES MIZ.

PC: Was that the first show you saw on Broadway?

NPH: First show I ever saw on Broadway. First show I ever heard the cassette to, when I was eleven years old and I was at a theatre camp in New Mexico. That was my opera. I, actually, frankly, have never been to an opera in my life - and, so, to me, that was all-sung, European; I know it inside and out.

PC: Check out the Met RINGS then!

NPH: Cool! Maybe I will.

PC: Congratulations on winning the Twitter Shorty Award.

NPH: Thank you.

PC: It's a pretty big deal. Didn't the award come broken, though?

NPH: (Laughs.) Yes, it arrived shattered and I couldn't quite come up with the proper joke for it. Maybe if I tweet about it I'll get another one!

PC: Tell me about hosting the Tony Awards - you were awesome.

NPH: Oh, I loved doing it! You know, one of the things I am in the great and unique position to do is to encourage people that might not know otherwise to see things live. And, the Tonys is the big opportunity to do that - to have middle America know that people are working so hard, eight times a week, on amazing productions. So, anytime I am given the opportunity to encourage people to go see live things, I will. I hope to Ed Sullivan myself more in the future.

PC: Do you have high hopes for the show this year given the busy season we've had on Broadway?

NPH: The Tonys is gonna be a blast! This year is going to be a different Tony Awards, because it's not at Radio City and there are some really interesting things and interesting actors this year, so I will be very excited to watch.

PC: The specialty material that Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman wrote for you was so spot-on - especially the last song.

NPH: That was a fantastic to be able to do - and this year they have CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, so they'll be sitting in the second row for sure!

PC: Would you consider a swingin' album ala that score?

NPH: Actually, lately, I've been drawn to music more of the 30s and 40s.

PC: Cole Porter? Gershwin? Arlen?

NPH: Yeah, I've been liking like Cole Porter and the Andrews Sisters - I am just keen on that sound right now. So, if you were to ask me to cut an album right now, I would have to say it would be with songs like that. But, I don't know how well that would sell with the GLEE set. (Laughs.)

PC: What's on your iPod right now?

NPH: On my iPod lately? I keep going back to old school Jason Mraz and the Black Eyed Peas last album.

PC: Jason Mraz is beyond incredible. He has done this column, actually, as well. His live show recordings are the very, very best.

NPH: Oh, man, I have all his stuff, too! Listen, I knew him when he used to play in LA all the time. I first met him at a backyard barbeque at a friend's house and he just whipped out his guitar and started playing a couple of songs. Then, someone gave me a CD of songs he recorded live at a couple studios. I have been just a gonzo fan of his ever since. That's mood music to me.

PC: His lyrics are musical theatre, really - he's a Sondheim fan, too.

NPH: He's just amazing. And his musicality? Remarkable.

PC: What's your favorite? "Rand McNally"?

NPH: "Rand McNally" is great. "Curbside Prophet" is great. Those are my favorites.

PC: What's next? Are you taking a vacation? You earned one.

NPH: I am currently directing this pilot for CBS and that happens through the middle of next week. And, then, I am actually hoping to go back to New York when I am not overwhelmed with rehearsals and see some shows.

PC: What do you want to see?

NPH: I am dying to see SLEEP NO MORE - that Punch-Drunk show in the Chelsea Hotel. I am dying to see BOOK OF MORMON, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, HOW TO SUCCEED, MOTHERF*CKER WITH THE HAT - I need to get my theatre fix on.

PC: Did you see BLOODY, BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON?

NPH: Yeah, I saw it when it was at the Public.

PC: Did you like it?

NPH: Yeah, I thought it was really funny.

PC: We need more modern music like that on Broadway.

NPH: I definitely don't disagree.

PC: Last question: Define collaboration.

NPH: (Pause.) Hmm. I think it's an open exchange of ideas without demanding that you emerge victorious.

PC: You are so victorious, Neil. RENT to now - you deserve every bit of your success, my friend.

NPH: I will tell you that I am dying for HOW I MET MY MOTHER to end so I can be BARNUM.

PC: PT Barnum in BARNUM will be your next musical theatre role?

NPH: Yep. That's my next goal.

PC: For Cameron Mackintosh?

NPH: Or, so I hear! That would be great. When I did "Side By Side" in Act Two of COMPANY I felt like, "Ugh, this would be so fun to do!" because it reminds me of what it would be like to do BARNUM.

PC: Who would you want for your leading lady?

NPH: Whoa, good call! I don't know! Who would be good?

PC: How about a new spin: your COMPANY co-star Anika Noni Rose?

NPH: Maybe, but she told me at COMPANY that I couldn't wear cologne because she has asthma.

PC: Maybe not, then!

NPH: (Laughs.) That was a buzz kill!

PC: Christina Hendricks, then - add some sex appeal!

NPH: (Big Laugh.) Maybe! (Brooklyn Accent.) "Hoo, boy, the colors of her life!" (Laughs.)

PC: (Laughs.) Thank you so much, Neil. You are the man.

NPH: Thank you so much. I really appreciate it, Pat. Bye for now.

 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos