Three African Americans received Tony Awards at the 2023 ceremony. Alex Newell won Best Featured Actor in a Musical for performing “Shucked,” J. Harrison Ghee snagged Best Leading Actor in a Musical for performing in “Some Like It Hot,” and Suzan-Lori Parks earned the Best Play Revival award for her production, “Topdog/Underdog.”
“Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” is NBCs latest “high-concept drama” to hit television, a musical mashup meets tech explosion where actress, Jane Levy stars as Zoey Clarke, a computer wiz and coder that magically begins to hear people’s inner most thoughts through popular music. The Sentinel recently interviewed two of the casts’ stars to take a deeper dive into the show’s diversity and position as a platform for deep, personal expression. Alex Newell stars as Mo on the show, the boisterous best friend who tells it like it is and isn’t afraid to convey how he feels in the form of song.