Neil Patrick Harris Headed Back to Broadway in BARNUM?

According to Popeater.com, Neil Patrick Harris may be heading from the small screen back to the Great White Way to star as P.T. Barnum in the musical BARNUM, about the famed showman. According to the site, Harris is the first and only choice for the role. 

Reportedly, BARNUM producer Cameron Mackintosh (Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Les Miserables, Mary Poppins) has had his heart set on Harris ever since watching him host the 2009 Emmy Awards. Also on Harris' plate is, of course, continuing to film CBS' How I Met Your Mother, on which Harris is a series regular, and hosting The Cube, a new game show for CBS. 

Barnum, with a book by Mark Bramble, lyrics by Michael Stewart and music by Cy Coleman, debuted at Broadway's St. James Theatre on April 30, 1980. Jim Dale took home the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical as the iconic and larger-than-life American showman. Michael Crawford later staged the role at the London Palladium in 1981.

Equally successful on stage and screen, Neil Patrick Harris continues to demonstrate his creative versatility. He can currently be seen as the womanizing Barney Stinson in the fifth season of the hit CBS comedy series, "How I Met Your Mother," a role which garnered him a 2009 Golden Globe nomination and three consecutive Emmy Award nominations. Named one of the "2008 Entertainers of the Year" by Entertainment Weekly, Harris served as host of the 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards and the 63rd Annual Tony Awards. He has appeared on Broadway in Childen of Art, Assassins, Cabaret and Proof.

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