Neil Patrick Harris was expected to make his Broadway debut in Assassins in fall 2001, but the show was postponed in the wake of 9/11. The actor widely known for TV's "Doogie Howser, MD," is making his Broadway bow about nine months later than expected, in the songless Proof, the Pulitzer Prize winning drama by David Auburn. Following stints in Rent and Sweeney Todd (in concert), Harris told Playbill On-Line he's an actor who sings.

"I think because I can sing it opens up that whole avenue of opportunities," he says in the July 16-22 Brief Encounter interview. "I'm really grateful that my first entry into Broadway is in a straight play that allows me to be seen as an actor, primarily. The singing thing is great, but I think that's a stranger label than being a TV actor — being a musical theatre actor, because oftentimes they're not even thought of for regular plays or Shakespeare or things like that."

Harris spoke of Doogie, L.A., musicals and the college he never went to in PBOL's signature Q&A. Click Brief Encounter to view it.