He's winning rave reviews for his portrayal of a transgender glam rock singer in the revival of Hedwig And The Angry Inch.
And for the Broadway premiere of the musical on Tuesday, Neil Patrick Harris made sure to pull out all the stops.
The 40-year-old actor stripped out of his wig and fishnets during a segment of the show, revealing his toned and lithe physique as he wore nothing but latex hot pants.
Revealing show: Neil Patrick Harris stripped down to latex hot pants for Hedwig And The Angry Inch Broadway premiere
While sporting the barely-there shorts, the How I Met Your Mother star struck a series of poses that displayed his muscular figure while stomping around in canvas shoes.
Although, most memorably, Neil donned Hedwig's iconic 'Farrah' wig, fishnets, and high-heeled booties for most of his performance onstage at the Belasco Theatre.
David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter said of the actor's portrayal: 'Harris smoothly marries Borscht Belt shtick with a self-serious songspiel style reminiscent of Ute Lemper, spicing his performance with improvisational touches and audience exchanges ranging from flirty asides to a lap-dance.'
Big dreams: The 40-year-old plays an East German performer with large aspirations
Getting physical: The star showed off his impressive physique during the song and dance show
All dressed up: The veteran actor and magician dons a wig for most of the show
And the glowing reviews kept pouring in, as The New York Times' Ben Brantley wrote: 'Mr. Harris is in full command of who he is and, most excitingly, what he has become with this performance.
'That's a bona fide Broadway star, the kind who can rule an audience with the blink of a sequined eyelid...'
While Marilyn Stasio of Variety says that Harris delivers a 'rock-star performance' in a 'spectacular revival'.
Intimate talk: Neil has won rave reviews for his performance
Stage kiss: The actor got a smooch from Lena Hall
Taking a bow: Neil and Lena clasped hands as the audience applauded them
The four-time Emmy winner has been openly gay since 2006, but the closest he's ever gotten to drag was as the Emcee for Broadway's Cabaret in 2003.
'Hedwig is bringing up a lot of super insecure things within me,' Neil revealed to OUT magazine.
'I have never thought drag was intoxicating, I've never had a fun drunken Halloween in drag, never been in heels, really. I've lived my whole life being attracted by masculinity — it's why I like guys. I'm not a super effete person, and I have to turn into that, and in doing so it brings up a lot of homophobic insecurities within myself.'
The nineties off-off Broadway production - created by composer/lyricist Stephen Trask and John Cameron Mitchell - went on to become a 2001 cult favourite movies which scored a Golden Globe nod, Grammy nod, and two Sundance awards.
Standing ovation: Peter Yanowitz, Tim Mislock, Lena, Neil, Matt Duncan, and Justin Craig took a bow
The Girls actor - who turns 51 this month - said the Broadway production team always considered Harris the ideal Hedwig.
'We already knew he was a triple threat, maybe a quadruple threat,' Mitchell told OUT.
'He's like a prince. He rules the rooms; he doesn't crumple under the pressure. All of that attention could have really broken a weak man, but he remains dignified, he remains kind, and he also remains like a little boy loving what he does.'
Hedwig And The Angry Inch runs through August 17 at the Belasco Theatre.
REVIEW: NEIL PATRICK HARRIS CRUSHES IT IN HEDWIG
Mark Kennedy AP Drama Writer
It's obvious from the first moments of Hedwig and the Angry Inch that star Neil Patrick Harris is doing something special. And it's not just trying on a new role.
He is lowered to the stage in a jumpsuit and ferociously feathered blond wig and immediately begins the show's first rock-punk song, getting down on all fours, grinding into the microphone stand or licking the guitarist's strings.
The crowd inside of the Belasco Theatre, where the show opened Tuesday, loses its mind, and why not? 'Thank you! Thank you, you're so s! weet,' Harris says. 'I do love a warm hand on my entrance.'
Before our eyes, Harris is opening another chapter in his exceptional show business career with this 90-minute show and he simply crushes it, holding nothing back, softening no edges, making no nice.
Doogie Howser is long gone; the macho, tie-wearing Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother has left the building. That guy in The Smurfs film franchise is nowhere to be found, especially not strutting around in a pair of gold stilettos.
Harris, of course, plays Hedwig, a transgender East German performer who explains her tortured path from Berlin to a mobile home in Kansas to New York. Along the way, she has lost a piece of her manhood (the remainder is the rest of the show's title.)
The show has a renovated book by John Cameron Mitchell — who also played the first Hedwig — and ! songs by Stephen Trask that straddle the line between rock 'n'! roll and traditional musical theater. A cult off-Broadway hit in 1998, Hedwig led to a 2001 feature film and has seemingly been waiting for Harris ever since.
Director Michael Mayer has been twice blessed. He has an undervalued score — some of the 10 songs here like Wicked Little Town, Origin of Love and Wig in a Box deserve to be on iPods everywhere — and a stunning leading man who is willing to eat cigarettes and lick the stage ('Tastes like Kathy Griffin,' he comments after putting tongue to wood).
Mayer harnesses both beautifully, allowing Harris in a jean miniskirt to explore his natural exuberance but keeping the show about Hedwig, a feisty piece of show business flotsam or, as she admits, an 'internationally ignored song stylist.' Harris sings with real feeling, whether it's a torch song on a stool while dressed in a little cocktail dress or rocking out a head-banging tune by attacking t! he scenery.
Mitchell may not be Hedwig anymore, but he has given Harris new dialogue perfectly suited to the new star: Digs at the ultra-hip Jane Hotel in New York, John Mayer and dating site ChristianMingle, as well as a new recurring joke about Broadway itself: Hedwig makes fun of the fictional Hurt Locker: the Musical, which 'opened last night and closed at intermission.' (Not to worry, old jokes like the fragrance Atrocity By Hedwig are still there.)
Other updates include some great, trippy projections by Benjamin Pearcy and a set by Julian Crouch that features a rusting car, front and centre onstage, plus a fabulous grid of wig mannequins.
The five-piece rock band is headed by Lena Hall, a Broadway veteran who also, appropriately, leads the band The Deafening. In drag most of the night, Hall shows musical versatility and comic chops.
But it will come as no surprise that while Hall has an u! nderstudy, Harris does not. And that's perfectly right: Rarely does a role fit a performer so well. Harris is funny, twisted, poignant, outrageous, bizarre, silly and very, very human.
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Source : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2610965/Neil-Patrick-Harris-reveals-lean-toned-physique-latex-hot-pants-stripping-drag-Hedwig-And-The-Angry-Inch-Broadway-premiere.html
