It doesn’t actually say this in the official announcement that the organizers of the Tony Awards sent around on Thursday morning, but you can almost hear them saying it to their industry colleagues at the Oscars: find a host who works, and stick with him. While the choosing of an Academy Awards host is an annual cycle of wondering who’s available to do it; wondering if the person or people chosen are up to the task; and then wondering what went wrong on the morning after, the Tonys have dispensed with such uncertainty by naming Neil Patrick Harris to host the awards program for a fourth year.
Mr. Harris, a star of the CBS comedy “How I Met Your Mother†and the Broadway musicals “Cabaret†and “Assassins,†first hosted the Tonys in 2009; he took a year off in 2010 and handed the torch to Sean Hayes, then returned in 2011 and 2012. He won Emmy Awards in 2010 and 2012 for his Tonys work (shared with the show’s executive producers, Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss, who will also return this year), as well as an Emmy for his guest performance on “Glee.†Mr. Harris has also hosted programs like the Spike Video Game Awards. (And yet, he’s never hosted the Oscars.)
This year’s Tony Awards will be held on June 9 at Radio City Music Hall and will be broadcast live on CBS.
