Neil Patrick Harris talks about hosting the Tonys

Neil Patrick Harris returns as host of The Tony Awards on Sunday and The Hollywood Reporter has a terrific interview with him about it.

Here are a few excerpts:

The Hollywood Reporter: This being your third time hosting the Tonys, does that make it a breeze or even more of a challenge? Neil Patrick Harris: I think in many ways it’s more challenging because I don’t want to just rest on what I’ve done before. So I’m trying to come up with new ways to do things. Thankfully, the meat of the Tony telecast is the performances from the shows, so the awards show kind of creates itself around the season, and then I fill in based on the vibe of the season in general. I’m happy that there’ll be so many legitimately good performances on the show. That was my big worry.

THR: Do you have a favorite moment of the previous two Tony gigs you’ve done?

Harris: I must say I like those closing numbers where we create the song during the show. That rap that I got to do about the winners was both terrifying and kind of exhilarating. I’m still trying to wrap my head around how to do something similar this year without wanting to repeat myself.

THR: So did that taste of being on a New York stage again whet your appetite to come back and perform in another show any time soon?

Harris: I’m chomping at the bit, but I wouldn’t want to replace someone in an existing show. I’d want to do a new show, and the time involvement and commitment in that is at least half a year, if not more. Right now How I Met Your Mother runs longer than the other half of the year, so as soon as we know who the mother is, we’ll probably head East and both David (Harris’ partner David Burtka) and I can try and get back on stage.