Neil Patrick Harris: The Life You Choose

Neil Patrick Harris has never had a public meltdown, feuded with his family, nor gone to rehab (nor needed to). So what could he possibly do to spice up what on the surface would seem to be a dull autobiography? Well, there's the books he liked as a child, the Choose Your Own Adventure series. In these books, you flip back and forth as you are given choices to make and after trial and error, you get your happy ending. Neil Patrick Harris (NPH, as he is known to his fans) uses a modified version of this in Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography. The format is good for some comedy and not obtrusive enough to bother squares like me who like to read their books cover to cover, thank you very much.

Harris loves Steven Sondheim's music, and Sondheim seems to love him right back. After Doogie Howser, M.D. ended, Harris got an offer to do a concert version of Stephen Sondheim's Company With the New York Philharmonic. Rushing in from another job and woefully unprepared, Harris got "the business" from Patti Lupone after the dress rehearsal. Lesson learned, Harris improved and went on to do concert versions of Sweeney Todd and Assassins.


My personal favorite of NPH's compendium of work (and he works a lot) is Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog. Penned by Joss Whedon of Buffy The Vampire Slayer fame, it follows an evil genius trying to win over the girl of his dreams and defeat once and for all the obnoxious superhero who keeps saving the city. Standard stuff perhaps, but hilariously and musically done.

NPH also writes fondly of his stint in The Smurfs, where he got to be involved with motion-capture animation. Perhaps he did it because he has two children of his own with his husband (and the story he tells of how that came to be is not only touching but giggle-worthy).

Harris' latest effort (done concurrently with writing the book) is Hedwig and the Angry Inch. NPH was never really into rock and roll or a gay rights activist, but he saw a performance and just couldn't say no. I found the description of his hours-long preparation for each performance fascinating.

Interspersed with all these anecdotes are short letters from various people NPH has worked with, including Amy Sedaris and Whoopi Goldberg, a bewildering encounter with Scott Caan, as well as what a great time he had on How I Met Your Mother.Neil Patrick Harris has led a charmed life. Good thing he has a sense of humor about it.