A round-up of Neil Patrick Harris pre-Tony Award interviews: “I love the hosting thing”

Neil Patrick Harris will host the Tony Awards on Sunday night and being the showbiz trouper that he is, he’s in NYC doing all kinds of media.

“One of the provisos of taking the job,” he explained to Playbill.com, “is they said the host would have to get out there and promote to the show.”

And so he is. There’s an interview with the New York Times published Friday. Here is a taste of it:

You’re very calm and collected, considering that the Tonys are only a few days away.
I really don’t have butterflies. We’re just trying to come up with good introductions and trying to be witty and acerbic without being offensive. It will be great.

When they asked you to host, did you say yes right away or did you have to think about it?
I love the hosting thing. I’ve gotten to do a lot of it this year. I’m enjoying it. I thought I could do it and execute it well. It doesn’t freak me out, the idea of hosting and standing here at Radio City Music Hall. I feel pretty comfortable with the teleprompter and the writers. I know a lot of the people in theater, not just this theater, but theater. I think it fits in my skills set pretty well.

How much of a role do you have in crafting what you’ll do and say on stage?
I have a lot of say in what comes out of my mouth. There are writers on the show, obviously, but the last thing I want is to come across like I walked in the afternoon of, and stand there and read a teleprompter. That seems like a waste of everyone’s time. I want the jokes to sound like they’re coming out of my mouth. I might sing. We’ll see.

In his interview with CBS News, Neil said he has been researching the nominated shows in preparation for his hosting duties: “I really want to feel like I know what I’m talking about and make sure everything is in my voice.”

“At the end of the day, I’m a big proponent of theater and people going and seeing shows live,” he added. “…So it’s easy for me to stand there in Radio City and encourage people to see these unbelievable shows, which we’re going to be presenting for the first time in high (definition).”

He added the awards show will open with a large singing number featuring Dolly Parton, Elton John, Liza Minelli, and all the nominated shows. He said he won’t be a part of that act, but said he may get a chance to sing sometime during the evening’s show.

In an interview with People.com which took place Thursday during rehearsals, Neil showed how much he does know about this year’s crop of nominees. He’s been recommending the Tony-nominated Next to Normal, a rock musical about a family affected by its bipolar matriarch. “It’s the show that I bought the album during intermission and have been listening to ever since,” he admits.

“Rock of Ages is pretty great too,” Harris says of the ’80s rock musical, starring former American Idol contestant Constantine Maroulis. “Everyone thought it was going to be a sore spot on the Broadway landscape – and it’s great.”

In a chat with the Wall Street Journal, Neil says he’ll take a more straightforward approach. “It’s more important to help guide the ship through the season and have the audience that lives in small-town, middle America get a proper taste of what’s out there if they took a trip to New York.”

But the Tony-hosting gig won’t be completely about theater worship. He’ll keep an eye out for chances to improvise. “I’ll definitely be in the wings hoping that amazing and ridiculous things are happening so I can talk about it after the next commercial break,” he says. “That’s the adrenaline of it all.”

And finally, NPH appeared on The View Friday where he had a reunion with Whoopi Goldberg, his co-star in his first movie Clara’s Heart (This was even pre-Doogie!). He gave Whoopi a great big, long hug and explained to the other co-hosts that he was playing favorites because it was Whoopi who “took my cinematic virginity.”