Neil Patrick Harris

’How I Met Your Mother’ Star to Play Villain in ’Batman: The Brave and the Bold’

Neil Patrick Harris has seemingly done it all ---he’s hosted the Tony Awards, headlined the internet sensation Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, starred on Broadway and has earned even more fans with his role as Barney Stinson on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Soon, however, the 36-year-old actor will get musical with Batman as he lends his voice in Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

Based in part on the DC Comics "team-up" series The Brave and the Bold, Batman: The Brave and the Bold features two or more super heroes coming together to solve a crime or foil a super villain. The series debuted on November 14, 2008 on Cartoon Network.

"This is a big obnoxious, Broadway-type musical," joked Brave and the Bold producer James Tucker, who says Harris is "pitch perfect" in "Mayhem of the Music Meister!" as a former band-camp nerd turned megalomaniac.

According to Tucker, the Music Meister is a combination of various DC Comics villains and "has the power to create song wherever he goes, and he’s trying to dominate the world," adding that the episode’s "plot itself is just the framework, an excuse to have everybody sing!"

"[It’s] something [Harris can] contend with, as opposed to just a lark. It feels polished because of his vocals. And not just his singing, but his acting as the character, too. He nailed it. I showed him some drawings [of the character] and he got it instantly," Tucker said of Harris, whose Broadway credits include a well-reviewed turn as the Master of Ceremonies in the revival of Cabaret.

Tucker and producer-story editor Michael Jelenic wrote five original songs for the episode.

Warner Bros. Animation will air "Mayhem of the Music Meister!" during its Brave and the Bold panel at Comic-Con International at the San Diego Convention Center on Friday, July 24, 10am/PT.