I guess we knew he was precocious. He was Doogie Hauser after all.
We didn't know, though, that he would create the indelible, lovable Barney in How I Met Your Mother for ten years, or that he would be the best awards show host in a very long time. Not just host: performer of tricks and miracles, possessing the ineffable. The guy is super-talented.
But, whoa. Rush ye at haste to the Belasco for what is the best musical of the season. NPH is shining in that same order of magnitude. This is a killer pairing--Hedwig and Neil Patrick Harris. Apparently, Michael Mayer waited several years for NPH to be free, the feeling being let's do it with him or let's not do it at all. Thanks be to patience. And Mayer really directs this thing. He did give us Spring Awakening and American Idiot, so let's just say he has a positive genius for this brand of material. He spins a new gossamer magic from John Cameron Mitchell's original small show, floor show really, so emotive and iconic.
But it is Neil Patrick Harris's show. He accomplishes a trick so utterly accomplished: he inhabits Hedwig, the fabulous, wretched soul completely. This is a performance to be savored. While mainly an embellished song cycle, each song feels completely earned, transporting. I was a big fan of the original and felt lucky to be there for the triumph of that small production of a beautiful show. Now it soars across the footlights with a new intensity, a new audience, and an incomparable new star.
Comments