What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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T2 WHATS UP! January 5 - 11, 2020 BY SACHI KAMEISHI TV Media I f you'd told me a few years ago that musicals would be this culturally relevant in 2020, I would have been skeptical. For a while, tastes had changed — movies like "My Fair Lady" (1964) and "West Side Story" (1961) won Oscars in the '60s, but it's been many years since a musical has been taken quite that seriously. Today, though, musicals are popular enough to get both Academy Award nominations and prime-time network slots. The musical has come a long way. Critically acclaimed mov- ies like "La, La, Land" (2017), shows like "Glee" and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" and a stream of live-action Disney remakes have brought the genre back into the limelight, and its re- birth spans film, television, theater and podcasting. NBC is set to offer its own addition to the trend with its brand-new musical dramedy "Zoey's Ex- traordinary Playlist," premier- ing Tuesday, Jan. 7. Starring Jane Levy ("Subur- gatory") as the titular charac- ter, the show centers on the life of Zoey Clarke, a computer programmer whose extremely brainy, rigid nature often gets in the way of her ability to make an impression on the people around her. "All Zoey wanted was a connection ...," narrates the first trailer for the show, "... what she got, was so much more." In an event not unlike your standard superhero origin sto- ry, an MRI scan gone wrong leaves Zoey with the ability to access people's innermost thoughts and feelings. It's like she becomes a mind reader overnight, her desire to fully understand what people want from her seemingly fulfilled. And it doesn't end there — re- member, we're playing with musical rules here, there's a campy twist to all of this. "People are singing to me," Zoey explains. "Almost as if they were singing what they were thinking out loud." One second, Zoey's having a regular conversation with her best friend, Max, played by Jane Levy stars in "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" Hearing voices continued on page T10 TV FEATURE