When work started on season two of the NBC series “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist,” the challenge was capturing big song and dance numbers under new COVID guidelines. The first episode opened with a rousing rendition of “Hello, Dolly.”
Despite challenges, show creator Austin Winsberg and producer-choreographer Mandy Moore made it happen.
Winsberg says, “I’m pretty sure one or both of us cried as the number was going on because to us, it was validation that we could do it and a celebration of people in a way that we hadn’t seen in months and months and months.”
Moore and Winsberg check in from the set of “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” in Canada, where they had just finished shooting the show’s 100th musical number.
And they describe walking a fine line to capture the tone of a very personal show and explain how they decide which songs to use.