No Good Deed (song)
This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2011) |
"No Good Deed" | |
---|---|
Stephen Schwartz |
"No Good Deed" is a musical number from the hit Broadway musical Wicked. It is sung by Elphaba, the main character of the show. It is widely regarded as the most powerful piece of the musical; and the most emotional.[1]
Context and analysis
Performed towards the end of Act Two, the song springs from Elphaba's rage over her continuously thwarted efforts to do good and her inner turmoil about her intention for doing so. It explores the ideas of goodness and wickedness, which are central to the musical's theme. In the song she lists what she perceives as her failures at goodness, including anger with herself over
Development
Originally it was sung by
Recordings
The song was translated into eight languages, along with the musical. Among these, the German version, sung by Dutch actress Willemijn Verkaik, was featured on the 5th and 10th Anniversary Wicked albums.[4][5] In Willemijn's 10-year career in the show, she performed this song in three languages - German, Dutch and English. In an interview, she said that for German and Dutch, this song was the hardest to sing in the musical, while this was not the case in English. Instead, the hardest for her was The Wizard and I in the English-language productions.[6]
References
- ^ Wicked the Musical Wicked in Depth -- All about the magical show Wicked --aWizard of Oz prequel story musicalschwartz.com, accessed 3 December 2018
- ^ ""No Good Deed," Wicked Soundtrack, Stephen Schwartz : The Listening Blog". Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
- ^ "Stephen Schwartz Speaks about Opera and Wicked (Archived copy)". 2007-04-23. Archived from the original on 2010-01-18. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
- ^ Wicked 10th Anniversary, UMC, 2013-12-16, retrieved 2020-06-11
- ^ "Wicked: 5th Anniversary Special Edition". www.amazon.com. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
- ^ BACKSTAGE ON BROADWAY WITH WILLEMIJN VERKAIK youtube.com, accessed 3 December 2018