Tony and Emmy Award winner Neil Patrick Harris is returning to the Great White Way to star in a newly reimagined Broadway revival of the classic musical comedy Damn Yankees. Producers officially announced on September 27, 2026, that tickets have gone on sale for the production, which will begin preview performances on March 24, 2027, ahead of an official opening night scheduled for April 20 at Manhattan's Marquis Theatre. Harris will lead the cast as the smooth-talking, devilish character Applegate, alongside co-stars Julianne Hough and Austin Scott.
First coming to national fame as a child actor in the title role of the medical drama Doogie Howser, M.D., Harris established himself as a dominant television presence with his breakout role as Barney Stinson on the long-running CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. His extensive stage career includes acclaimed performances in Broadway productions of Cabaret, Proof, Assassins, and Rent. In 2014, Harris earned the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his transformative starring performance in Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
The upcoming revival of Damn Yankees features a updated book adapted by award-winning playwrights Will Power and Doug Wright, alongside additional lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. Directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Sergio Trujillo, this modernized production updates the story's setting to the early 2000s while retaining the classic Richard Adler and Jerry Ross score. Major League Baseball's production arm, MLB Studios, has partnered with the theatrical team to support the mounting.
Speaking at a press conference at Yankee Stadium to launch ticket sales, Harris expressed his lifelong affection for traditional golden-age Broadway musicals, noting that performing in a classic ensemble show with major dance numbers had been on his personal bucket list for years. The production marks the first major Broadway revival of the 1955 Tony-winning musical in over three decades.
With rehearsals set to commence early next year, theatre industry analysts anticipate that Harris's return to the Broadway stage will prove to be one of the flagship commercial box office attractions of the spring 2027 theatrical season.
