--- title: Neil Patrick Harris Disses Rachel Bloom, Bruce Springsteen description: Four-time Tony Awards host Neil Patrick Harris wasn’t in attendance for this year’s ceremony, but he was still watching. canonical: https://time.com/5308071/neil-patrick-harris-rachel-bloom/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-11T13:54:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:53:19.639Z og:title: Neil Patrick Harris Had Some Questions About the Tony Awards og:description: He appeared to subtly dissed Rachel Bloom and Bruce Springsteen og:url: https://time.com/5308071/neil-patrick-harris-rachel-bloom/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd56096584cd90b75/69888afc3c1639197b45c6f6/gettyimages-508076624.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Ovadia & Sons - Front Row - New York Fashion Week Men's Fall/Winter 2016 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Neil Patrick Harris Had Some Questions About the Tony Awards twitter:description: He appeared to subtly dissed Rachel Bloom and Bruce Springsteen twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd56096584cd90b75/69888afc3c1639197b45c6f6/gettyimages-508076624.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Neil Patrick Harris Tweeted Some Thoughts About Rachel Bloom and Bruce Springsteen During Tony Awards > Sponsored content. 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Andrew Toth—Getty Images by [David Canfield / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## David Canfield / Entertainment Weekly Jun 11, 2018 1:54 PM UTC Four-time Tony Awards host Neil Patrick Harris wasn’t in attendance for this year’s ceremony, but he was still watching. And he had a few celeb criticisms to broadcast on Twitter. The award-winning actor began live-tweeting the Tonys midway through the show, first praising the _Carousel_ cast performance. He then turned his attention to Golden Globe winner Rachel Bloom (_Crazy_ _Ex_–_Girlfriend_)_,_ who was doing comic bits for the show backstage, implying he didn’t know who she was — and seemingly criticizing her, per his son Gideon’s observation. “Who is the woman in the top hat backstage at @TheTonyAwards?” Harris asked. “Gideon remarked that she says ‘like’ and ‘oh my god’ a lot. I’m confused…” > [](https://twitter.com/ActuallyNPH/status/1005991744679313409) Bloom promptly tweeted back at Harris, professing she’s a big fan before indicating he should have a better idea of who she is since her husband wrote for the show which netted Harris considerable acclaim. “We’ve met numerous times and my husband, Dan Gregor, wrote for _How I Met Your Mother_ for 5 years,” she explained. “Notably, he wrote the episode where your character finally meets his father.” Harris then replied to Bloom, thanking her for the “reminder” and, it seems safe to say, attempting to diffuse any tension. > [](https://twitter.com/Racheldoesstuff/status/1006000777662423040) > [](https://twitter.com/ActuallyNPH/status/1006015911550160896) Less than an hour after his initial tweet about Bloom, Harris took a subtle hit at Bruce Springsteen, who accepted a special Tony Award for his lauded ongoing Broadway show _Springsteen on Broadway_, for using a teleprompter on stage. “How was _\[Once on This Island_ star Alex Newell\] not nominated for a Tony?” Harris asked. “\[Springsteen\] won, and he uses teleprompters. I don’t get the logic…” Harris then elaborated when a reply questioned whether Springsteen’s use of a teleprompter was that big of a deal. “Using a teleprompter is just not being willing to memorize your lines,” Harris lamented. “The director should have said something. Oh wait.” > [](https://twitter.com/ActuallyNPH/status/1006001296845963264) > [](https://twitter.com/ActuallyNPH/status/1006007141407260672) Harris also admitted it was difficult watching the Tony Awards on television, having hosted the show four times: “It’s hard to watch @TheTonyAwards. I miss it.” > [](https://twitter.com/ActuallyNPH/status/1005992775161139200) _This_ [_article_](https://ew.com/theater/2018/06/10/neil-patrick-harris-tonys-twitter/) _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](https://ew.com/) --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5308071/neil-patrick-harris-rachel-bloom/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5308071/neil-patrick-harris-rachel-bloom/"},"headline":"Neil Patrick Harris Tweeted Some Thoughts About Rachel Bloom and Bruce Springsteen During Tony Awards","datePublished":"2018-06-11T13:54:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:53:19.639Z","description":"Four-time Tony Awards host Neil Patrick Harris wasn’t in attendance for this year’s ceremony, but he was still watching.","url":"https://time.com/5308071/neil-patrick-harris-rachel-bloom/","keywords":["Newsfeed","awards","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd56096584cd90b75/69888afc3c1639197b45c6f6/gettyimages-508076624.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"David Canfield / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd56096584cd90b75/69888afc3c1639197b45c6f6/gettyimages-508076624.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ovadia & Sons - Front Row - New York Fashion Week Men's Fall/Winter 2016","caption":"Ovadia & Sons - Front Row - New York Fashion Week Men's Fall/Winter 2016","creditText":"Andrew Toth—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5308071/neil-patrick-harris-rachel-bloom/","name":"Neil Patrick Harris Tweeted Some Thoughts About Rachel Bloom and Bruce Springsteen During Tony Awards"}}]}] ```