Neil Patrick Harris to host Tony Awards again
(CBS/AP) Neil Patrick Harris will return as host for the upcoming Tony Awards.
Producers announced Tuesday that the "How I Met Your Mother" star and Broadway veteran will host the awards ceremony for a second time.
2011 Tony Awards nominees
Pictures: Neil Patrick Harris
Pictures: Last year's Tony Awards
Harris joked that Tony producers had borrowed the rigging equipment from the troubled "Spider-Man" musical. "What could possibly go wrong?" he asked.
This time, the ceremony honoring Broadway's best will be held at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan's Upper West Side, after several years at Radio City Music Hall.
The awards will be handed out June 12 in a telecast aired on CBS.
Harris also hosted the awards in 2009. "Will & Grace" actor Sean Hayes (who appeared on Broadway in "Promises, Promises") was last year's host.
Harris, 37, made his Broadway debut in the play "Proof," opposite Anne Heche, and later starred in revivals of the musicals "Cabaret" and "Assassins."
He recently joined Stephen Colbert, Christina Hendricks and Patti LuPone in the New York Philharmonic's production of "Company."
Harris hosted the 2009 Emmy Awards the same year he hosted the Tonys. The last time Harris hosted the Tonys, the audience was up 19 percent from the previous year.
The Nielsen Co. said last year's show was seen by about 7 million people, down 6 percent from the 2009 audience.