“All About Emily”

Connie Willis’s traditional Christmas tale for Asimov's is back, after too long a hiatus.

Claire Havilland is a three-time Tony winner, Broadway legend, and not very happy. After all, today’s big hits are things like “High School Musical – The Musical”, and “Forbidden Planet”, which stars today’s hot teen idols, Shiloh Jolie-Pitt and Justin Bieber Jr. On top of that, her agent wants her to star as Roxie Hart in a revival of “Chicago” even though she’s too old and, no, she will not wear leotards. So, nothing to put her in the Christmas spirit, until teenager Emily is introduced to her, and she discovers someone who knows and loves old movies as much as she does. Wonderful, except that Emily really is an experimental robot who wants nothing better out of her cybernetic life than to be a Rockette at Radio City Music Hall.

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