“Neil Patrick Harris is wearing nothing but a bowtie and a discretely placed top hat on the cover of the next issue of Rolling Stone,” the magazine says in its tease for a profile of the star of Hedwig and the Angry Inch on Broadway. He lost 22 pounds for the role.

“After years emphasizing his masculinity, Harris has had to work to play the effeminate Hedwig.
‘I didn’t think he could pull off the femininity of [the role],” (his husband David) Burtka says. “This is such a stretch for him. In his day-to-day, he’s not a very feminine guy.” Harris, too, said that he had always been aware of how he presented himself, especially in his Doogie years. “I have always been highly aware of how I was presenting myself,” Harris admits. “Which, now that I’m playing overtly feminine and loving it, is kind of a stupid concern.”