If you haven’t seen already over the last few days, it was announced that the final main role in the the NPH-directed production of Rent has gone to former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger. She will play Maureen, alongside already cast Aaron Tveit, Skylar Astin, Vanessa Hudgens, Wayne Brady and more. ContactMusic has a few words from Neil on Nicole’s casting. The ensemble has also been announced, and comprises of Yassmin Alers, Eric B. Anthony, King Aswad, Susan Beaubian, David Burtka, Kathy Deitch, Sam Given, Rachael Harris, Tricia Kelly, Ethan Le Phong, Kristolyn Lloyd, Zarah Mahler, Laura Mixon, Jason Paige, MiRi Park, and Brandon Wardell.

“Nicole had a wonderful audition – she was well prepared, sang beautifully, and had us all laughing. If only she was somewhat attractive and didn’t have two left feet… I’m very excited to have finally finished the casting process, and look forward to rolling up my sleeves and start rehearsing.”

Neil guest co-hosted this morning’s Live with Regis & Kelly alongside Kelly Ripa, sitting in for Regis Philbin. The “host chat” segment is online now – Neil and Kelly discussed David’s surprise birthday party, his decision to cast Vanessa Hudgens in Rent and the Smurfs, amongst other things, and you can watch the video below.

Last week, Neil and David went to see Stuffed and Unstrung, and you can see a gallery of their visit with the cast (both human and puppet) here on Playbill.com.

Posted by: Rach at 2:51 pm | · Filed under: Theatre | Comment
Tags: David Burtka, Directing, Hollywood Bowl, Rent, Theatre, TV: Live with Regis & Kelly |

Following on from the recent casting of Vanessa Hudgens as Mimi, details of the rest of the “Rent” cast have been announced.

Next To Normal star Aaron Tveit will be taking on the role of Roger, and Spring Awakenings Skylar Astin will play Mark. Cold Case star Tracie Thomas will be reprising the role of Joanne, which she previously played in the movie version of Rent as well as at the end of it’s Broadway run. Wayne Brady, who has worked alongside Neil as Barney’s brother James on How I Met Your Mother, will be playing Collins.

Collins Pennie (Benny), Telly Leung (Angel) and Gwen Stewart round out the currently announced cast.

“So far, I’m thrilled with the cast. With this gang, I’m hoping to provide an eclectic mix of experienced RENT performers, amazing new talent, and recognizable faces in unexpected roles. Of paramount importance to me, though, is honoring the piece as a whole – the music, the vibe, the creator – so that those who have never experienced RENT will be able to appreciate it alongside die hard fans. We’ll only have one week of rehearsal, which I like to call ‘madness’, but as of now my hopes are very high.” – Neil Patrick Harris

Individual tickets are available from Tuesday, May 2nd at HollywoodBowl.com, in person at the Hollywood Bowl box office, or by calling 323-850-2000. Rent will run from August 6-8 at the Hollywood Bowl, directed by Neil Patrick Harris, with musical direction by Tim Weil and choreography by Jamal Sims.

In other news, magician Lance Burton was a guest on this week’s Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and Craig left it to Neil to introduce him, as only Neil can. You can watch the video here!

Posted by: Rach at 10:32 am | · Filed under: Theatre | Comment
Tags: Directing, Hollywood Bowl, Rent, Tickets, TV: Craig Ferguson |

OnTheRedCarpet.com caught up with Neil in a short video interview at the Academy of Magical Arts awards on Sunday.

Actor Neil Patrick Harris is directing a special production of Rent at the Hollywood Bowl this summer. He’s no stranger to the stage or the show, (he played Mark Cohen in the 2nd National Tour), but he’s taken some flak recently for casting High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens for the lead role of Mimi.

On The Red Carpet caught up with Harris, who defended his decision, “Vanessa is awesome. She’s a friend. I asked her to come in and sing to make sure she had the chops for it. And she was very committed and seemed great.”

io9.com reports that the sequel to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is now in development; no official word on if Neil will return as Steve the Monkey just yet.

Neil’s episode of Celebrity Jeopardy, in which he competes against CSI New York’s Hill Harper and former basketball player Rebecca Lobo, will air this coming Thursday, April 15th at 7pm PST on ABC-TV. Visit the show’s website for a short video interview with him. Neil was playing on behalf of Food on Foot.

Finally, NYMag’s Vulture section has read the script for A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas. Mild plot spoilers are in the article, so if you don’t want to know, suffice it to say that the script confirms that Neil has a part to play.

Posted by: Rach at 8:28 am | · Filed under: Theatre | Comment
Tags: Academy of Magical Arts Awards, Charity, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Directing, Gameshows, Harold & Kumar, Hollywood Bowl, Movies, Rent, TV: Celebrity Jeopardy |

The first casting news for this summer’s production of Rent at the Hollywood Bowl has now been released – High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens will play Mimi in the summer concerts, which will run from August 6-8. Neil will direct the show, and had this to say about casting his ‘Beastly’ co-star Vanessa:

“She came in for a work session, and I must say, Vanessa really impressed. She looks amazing, has great vocal chops, and seems really committed to honoring the somewhat iconic role of Mimi. I look forward to audiences seeing a dark, edgy, and very different side of Vanessa Hudgens this August.”

Stay tuned for more casting news over the coming weeks! Subscription tickets for the whole summer concert series are available now at HollywoodBowl.com or by calling 323-850-2000. Tickets for individual performances will be available starting May 2nd.

Posted by: Rach at 5:31 pm | · Filed under: Theatre | Comment
Tags: Beastly, Directing, Hollywood Bowl, Rent |

While in Vegas for the CBS Films Luncheon at ShoWest (a film/cinema distribution trade show), Neil talked to Tony Potts from Access Hollywood about his directing future and his work on Glee, as well as a little playing a blind man about Beastly, the movie Neil was there to promote. We’ve got a bunch of photos from the event, featuring Neil, Vanessa Hudgens and Alex Pettyfer, in our gallery.

Dracula’s Daughter’s Vs. The Space Brains had its world premiere at the Cleveland International Film Festival on Friday, and by all accounts was a massive success! Clevescene talks to director Frank Ippolito ahead of the premiere and had this to say of Neil’s casting:

Casting Harris, whom he knew through the magician Teller (the subject of the Teller shorts) wasn’t difficult. “He likes quirky things,” Ippolito says of Harris. “Most of the stuff I see him do is a little weird so he thought it was cool. It wasn’t a struggle to get him to say yes.”

Posted by: Rach at 3:51 pm | · Filed under: TV Appearances | Comment
Tags: Beastly, Directing, Dracula's Daughters vs the Space Brains, Gallery Update, Hollywood Bowl, Movies, Rent, Short Films, TV Appearances, TV: Glee |

It’s all over the internet; Neil has officially signed on to guest-star in an upcoming episode of Glee. Confirmed by eonline’s Watch with Kristin yesterday, the episode is currently being written and will see Neil star as ‘a character who is “really funny and really mean.”‘ Ultimate Gleeks adds that Neil has confirmed his role will be one episode only.

And confirmed today is the news that we posted about two days ago; Neil has officially been confirmed to direct three performances of Rent at the Hollywood Bowl in August this year. The performances will take place August 6-8. The cast is yet to be announced, but Tim Weil has joined the production as musical director. The Hollywood Bowl tickets page is here, however tickets are not currently available until the Hollywood Bowl box office reopens in the spring.

Posted by: Rach at 8:03 pm | · Filed under: Theatre | Comment
Tags: Directing, Hollywood Bowl, Rent, TV Appearances, TV: Glee |

According to BroadwayWorld.com’s Rialto Chatter, they’re hearing that Neil is set to direct 3 performances of Rent at the Hollywood Bowl.  The show is due to take place from 6-8 August this year, as part of the Hollywood Bowl’s summer programme. The cast and further details will be announced at a later date.

You can watch a behind the scenes first look at Neil in Batman: Under the Red Hood here. Neil appears in the second of two videos, if you want to watch the first one, it’s here.

Neil has been nominated for best Performance in a Comedy Series at the Prism awards, an awards ceremony to honor “media that address issues related to drug, alcohol, tobacco use, mental illness, bipolar disorder, depression and suicide”. HIMYM has also been nominated in the Best Comedy Series category, for the “Last Cigarette Ever” episode.

Posted by: Rach at 12:05 pm | · Filed under: Theatre | Comment
Tags: Awards & Nominations, Batman: Under the Red Hood, Directing, Rent, TV: HIMYM, Video Update |