Neil Patrick Harris Set to Play the Devil in Broadway’s ‘Damn Yankees’ Revival
The Tony- and Emmy-winning performer will lead a new Broadway production of the classic 1955 musical, appearing with Julianne Hough and Austin Scott.
Neil Patrick Harris is heading back to Broadway in a role that promises to be among the most playful and potentially mischievous turns of his stage career. The Tony- and Emmy-winning actor will portray the Devil in a new revival of Damn Yankees, the 1955 musical, performing alongside Julianne Hough and Austin Scott.
The casting places Harris at the center of a production built around one of musical theater’s most recognizable supernatural figures. Although details about the revival remain limited, the announcement immediately gives the project a high-profile presence. Harris brings experience across stage and screen, while Hough and Scott add two additional prominent performers to the production’s principal cast.
For Broadway audiences, the appeal of Harris as the Devil is easy to understand. The part calls for a performer who can command attention, handle comedy and project a sense of danger without losing the theatrical fun of the character. Harris has long been associated with that combination of charm, timing and showmanship, making the casting a natural fit for a musical in which temptation is central to the story.
Damn Yankees first reached the stage in 1955. Its premise turns an ordinary desire into a supernatural bargain, giving the musical an opportunity to explore ambition, consequences and the price of getting what one wants. The Devil is not simply an outside force in that framework. He is the character who makes the bargain possible, shapes the action and brings an element of sly unpredictability to the evening.
That role also gives Harris a chance to play against the expectations audiences may bring to him. Rather than appearing as a straightforward hero, he will step into the part of the figure offering temptation. A production can use the Devil to heighten the comedy, sharpen the conflict or make the story feel more unsettling. Harris’s casting suggests that the role will be treated as a substantial showcase rather than a passing appearance.
The revival will also feature Hough and Scott, who will perform alongside Harris. Their involvement broadens the production’s profile and creates a cast with experience suited to a major musical theater presentation. The available announcement does not identify the precise roles they will play or provide further details about the staging, but their names signal that the production is being assembled around performers who can share the demands of a Broadway musical.
Harris’s career has repeatedly moved between different forms of entertainment. He is a Tony- and Emmy-winning actor, and his work has made him familiar to audiences both onstage and on screen. That range matters in a production such as Damn Yankees, where the leading performers must communicate a story through dialogue, music, movement and direct theatrical presence.
The Devil can be an especially revealing part for a performer with Harris’s background. The character has to be persuasive enough to make a bargain seem attractive, but entertaining enough to keep the audience engaged even when the consequences begin to emerge. He can be polished, funny, threatening or all three at once. The role’s energy depends less on simple villainy than on the pleasure of watching someone attempt to control a situation through personality.
That balance may become one of the defining features of the revival. A broad comic interpretation could make the Devil an irresistible showman, while a darker approach could emphasize the story’s warnings about shortcuts and impossible promises. With Harris in the role, the production has a performer capable of navigating both sides of that equation. His presence can make the character feel larger than life while still allowing the audience to recognize the human desires at the center of the story.
The decision to revive a musical from the 1950s also creates a conversation between Broadway history and contemporary performance. Works from that era arrive with established identities, but a revival is not merely a replay of the original production. It gives a new creative team and a new cast the opportunity to determine what remains vivid, what needs to be reconsidered and how the material can speak to a present-day audience.
Damn Yankees offers a particularly clear foundation for that kind of reexamination because its central conflict is immediately understandable. People have always been drawn to stories about sudden success and the sacrifices hidden behind it. The supernatural bargain provides a heightened theatrical version of a familiar question: what would someone give up in exchange for achieving a long-held dream?
Putting Harris in the role of the Devil makes that question the entry point for the production’s celebrity appeal. Audiences may arrive eager to see a well-known performer take on a flamboyant part, but the character also gives Harris room to shape the tone of the entire musical. The Devil often becomes the audience’s guide through the story’s most extravagant turns, inviting viewers to enjoy the spectacle while keeping the stakes in view.
The announcement is also significant because Broadway revivals depend heavily on the relationship between a familiar title and a fresh cast. A recognizable musical can attract audiences who already know its reputation, while new performers offer a reason to experience it again. Harris, Hough and Scott provide that new point of focus. They allow the production to present the musical as both a classic and a current event in the Broadway season.
For Harris, the role represents another opportunity to work in a form that rewards live interaction. Film and television can preserve a performance through editing and repeated viewing, but theater unfolds in real time. A comic pause, a musical entrance or a change in the audience’s response can alter the feeling of a scene from one performance to the next. A part as theatrical as the Devil gives Harris the chance to use that immediacy to full effect.
It also places him in a position that requires strong chemistry with the rest of the company. The Devil’s power comes from his relationships with the people he tempts and manipulates. His scenes must feel connected to the emotional world of the musical rather than functioning as isolated showcases. Hough and Scott’s presence will therefore be important to the production’s balance, even though the currently available information does not specify how their characters will intersect with Harris’s.
The casting may appeal to different sections of the Broadway audience for different reasons. Theatergoers familiar with the original musical will have the chance to see a celebrated performer reinterpret one of its signature figures. Viewers who know Harris primarily from his screen work may be encouraged to see him in a live musical setting. Fans of Hough and Scott will likewise have a reason to follow the production as more information becomes available.
At the same time, the revival’s success will depend on more than star power. The material must be shaped into a coherent stage experience, with the comedy, music and supernatural elements working together. A famous name can draw attention to a production, but the lasting impression will come from how convincingly the cast creates the world of the musical and how clearly the story’s emotional stakes are communicated.
That is where Harris’s casting becomes especially useful. The Devil is a role that can connect the production’s entertainment value with its underlying conflict. He can be the source of the evening’s biggest laughs, but he can also embody the danger of confusing immediate reward with lasting happiness. The part allows a performer to give the musical a strong personality while reinforcing its central bargain.
The production’s announced cast does not yet reveal how the revival will be staged or what artistic approach will define it. No additional production details are included in the announcement. Those decisions will determine whether the revival leans toward bright comedy, romantic fantasy, sharper satire or a combination of those elements. For now, the clearest signal is the choice of Harris as the supernatural force driving the story.
His participation gives Damn Yankees an immediate headline, but it also raises expectations. Audiences will want to see how he handles the Devil’s persuasive charm, how he uses the rhythm of live comedy and how he fits into the musical’s larger ensemble. They will also be watching to see how Hough and Scott contribute to the revival’s identity alongside him.
A revival can succeed when it respects the character of an older work without treating it as untouchable. The 1955 musical provides the foundation, while the new cast supplies the energy that can make the material feel present rather than preserved. Harris’s Devil is likely to be the production’s most visible link between those two ideas: a classic role filtered through a contemporary Broadway performer with a proven connection to both theater and television.
For now, the announcement offers a concise but enticing picture of the project. Neil Patrick Harris will play the Devil, Julianne Hough and Austin Scott will join him, and a new Broadway production of Damn Yankees will revisit a musical first presented in 1955. Further details will define the revival in time, but the central casting choice has already made its intention clear: this will be a production built around the theatrical pleasure of watching a major performer make temptation impossible to ignore.