Regis - Welcome Neil Patrick Harris! Well, how are you Neil? Good to see you again.

Neil - Good.

Kathie Lee - How are you? Nice to see you.

N - You too.

R - Look at you all grown up here for crying out loud.

N - Hey, thanks. How are you? Welcome.

R - Yeah, good to see you. You left Doogie and you came back Neil.

N - That’s true, yes.

R - Good to see you.

N - Thanks. Good to be here.

K - You probably have a very good sense of what Doogie was to you and for you.

N - Well, it’s allowed me to be able to take my time and pick things that I enjoy doing and do theatre stuff that doesn’t pay very much money and...

K - It feeds your soul.

N - Yeah, absolutely. It’s great.

K - Now, is it Antonia?

N - My Antonia. It’s a movie tht I did on the USA Network that aired once and is on two more times - on the 2nd and the 8th - so it’s kind of a fun period piece. A Willa Cather novel it was based on.

R - Alright. But in the meantime you’re here in New York working off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theatre. "Luck, Pluck & Virtue" and which one are you?

N - (pointing at the Playbill) I’m this one. I’m the middle guy right there. I’m actually all three at various points of the play.

R - It’s not a one man show?

N - No, it’s a one act show. It’s about my character, Lester Price, goes off to seek his family fortune. It’s based on a Horatio Alger novel so it’s kind of a parody on society and there’s lots of physical comedy and pratfalls and...

K - Schtick!

N - Schtick, lots of schtick. Schticking it up. I look great in the play. The women just love me in it. I look absolutely fantastic.

R - And it’s easy to see why. Look at this (holds up photo of Neil in a black and white prison uniform and very large teeth). Who wouldn’t love that?

N - You should see it ‘cause I...It’s beautiful...

K - It’s Jim Carrey!

N - What the heck’s goin’ on down there? (meaning the audience)

K - I’ve got a good dentist here in New York while you’re here.

R - Convict time there.

N - Yeah, yeah. I end up in jail with my teeth pulled out at one point. I lose my teeth and an eye and my scalp and a thumb and my leg throughout the show.

K - And you answer to the name of Lucky!

R - And when they sent you this, you know, when you read something like this cold, did it read well for you?

N - Yeah, it was really fun. James Lepine wrote it and directed it and we originally did it in La Jolla where...

R - Again with La Jolla!

K - The hot spot. La Jolla.

N - Yeah, so we did that there two years ago and then we brought it up here so it’s a more intimate theatre. It’s really nice.

R - Where are you living now?

N - I live in New Mexico, Albuquerque. I moved back.

K - Is that where you grew up?

N - That’s where I was born and raised. My family is there. It’s a wonderful city. I’d just had it with L.A. so I moved back to...

R - What do you mean you’d had it with L.A.?

K - Is that pre-earthquake or after earthquake?

N - It was post-earthquake and $100,000.00 worth of damage later I decided it was time to move.

K - Time to go home.

R - It’s a heartbreak, isn’t it?

N - Well, it’s just, it’s a very fast paced kind of bizarre town and I’m raised with New Mexico values and that’s where I’m happiest.

K - I knew I liked you. You’re not a Melrose kind of guy. He loves his mother!

N - I do.

R - You’re not living at home though, are you?

N - No, I bought a house.

R & K - He doesn’t love her that much!

N - Schtick! Schtick!

R - Funny stuff. When we come back we’ll show you a clip from My Antonia. We’ll be right back.

(commercial - then clip of church in NY)

R - There’s my old church where I was baptized.

N - Wow. A piece of Regis history.

R - Yeah. I was born right down there on 59th Street. So, what’s it like to work on stage in New York City? Do you have special energy?

N - Well, it’s great ‘cause the audience is responsive immediately. There’s no, you know, if something doesn’t work...

K - You know it.

N - We’ve had shows where - it’s a comedy - where no one laughed at anything. They thought it was hard core drama and it just makes the show different.

K - And difficult, I would think.

N - Difficult, but not in a bad way. They’re listening, they’re still paying attention, they’re just not into the broad comedy stuff so you have whole different audiences which just makes it different every night. Very exciting.

R - Well, what about this movie, My Antonia?

N - My Antonia is based on a Willa Cather novel. It was filmed in Nebraska and it’s a period epic kind of spanning the century between, a love story, between young Jimmy Burton and Antonia, this immigrant farm worker.

R - We’ve got Jimmy and Antonia and here you are telling her that your family is moving away.

N - Yes. Enjoy it.

(clip)

R - Antonia, very strong! Telling Jimmy where to go.

K - Definitely love. You can tell.

R - Can I ask how old you are at this point?

N - I’m 21.

R - You’re just 21! Oh my gosh.

(Audience has a strong reaction to this)

N - What does that mean?

K - They’re all thinking, "We’ve wasted our lives! Look what he’s done and he’s 21!"

R - Well, Doogie Howser began when you were 13 or something like that.

N - When I was 16, actually. It went on for four years, from 16 to 19.

R - And so now 21. Still single obviously.

N - Yes, unfortunately. Still am. Waiting to find Mrs. Right.

R - How ‘bout starting with Miss Right first?

N - That would be good.

K - There’s your problem.

N - That’s it. Damn.

R - I think you’d be better off with Miss Right. Anyway, My Antonia airs again on the USA Network on April 2nd and April 8th..

N - See the play!

R - And don’t forget, "Luck, Pluck & Virtue", The Atlantic Theatre.

K - He’s luck, you’re pluck, and I’m virtue.

R - Please, you’ve got that wrong. Thanks Neil, good to see you.