Neil Patrick Harris forms a new 'Company' on stage

Can we just go ahead and pass the title of Hardest Working Man in Show Business on to Neil Patrick Harris?

The "How I Met Your Mother" star, go-to awards show host and film actor -- he'll be in "The Smurfs" and "A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas" next year -- has added one more gig to his schedule. Harris will star in a New York Philharmonic production of Stephen Sondheim's musical "Company" in April.

Harris will play the lead character, perpetual bachelor Bobby, and he's looking forward to diving in to Sondheim's work. "It just allows the performer a great opportunity to mine as deep as they choose," he tells The New York Times. "My day job requires a shallowness that will be fun to play against."

Bobby could be seen as something of a forefather for Harris' "HIMYM" character Barney, but he sees at least one key difference in their approach to life.

"I think one could see Bobby as a bit of a playboy, a sort of serial dater without much behind it," Harris tells the Times. "I don't know that Barney has the deep-seated desire to couple up like Bobby probably does. But then again, Bobby doesn't have to respond to laugh tracks."

The New York Philharmonic's production of "Company" is scheduled to run April 7-9. There's no word yet on who will join him in the show's cast.