No Good Deed (song)

2003 song by Stephen Schwartz

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"No Good Deed"

Song by Idina Menzel
from the album  Wicked
Released| December 16, 2003
Recorded| November 10, 2003
Genre| Show tunes
Length| 3:30
Label| Decca Broadway
Songwriter(s)| 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.[1]

## Context and analysis

[edit]

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 that 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 her love interest Fiyero, who is concurrently being tortured by the Wizard's guards over her whereabouts; the capture and incapacitation of her favourite teacher, Dr. Dillamond; and the death of her sister, Nessarose. It occurs while Elphaba believes that Glinda has used her sister's death to lure her into being captured by the Wizard's Guard. She is distraught at being vilified by the Wizard's propaganda and the hatred of the citizens of Oz, so she decides she will no longer attempt to do good. The song begins with Elphaba screaming "Fiyero," but instead of being an unhitched scream, she actually sings a high note that is a minor second above the tonal centre of the song. This creates the effect of a scream, as the note is very high and dissonant, but it is much more controlled and musical than an actual scream.[2] It then moves into a chant of magical words making it the most chilling and foreboding of all the musical's numbers. Schwartz is quoted as likening No Good Deed to an opera aria:

"It’s just written for a different voice type, and it’s not written to be sung amplified. So those are the two big differences. I mean, 'No Good Deed' is written for a belter—I suppose a mezzo-soprano could sing it. But the orchestra is so busy and obstreperous throughout that you have to have an amplified voice to carry over it, if you want to hear the words at all. But for instance there's a moment in 'No Good Deed' where she belts a big note and then there's a place where it suddenly gets pianissimo — she has to hit the note very loud and hold it, and then get very soft — and that's absolutely like something one would write in classical singing or an opera aria. Or the moment where she does 'Nessa, Dr. Dillamond,' and then sort of shouts out 'Fiyero' while the orchestra is sawing away at one of the motifs. I think it's structured very much like an aria but it's built to get a great big hand at the end with a big belted last note. So it's still very much musical theatre."[3]

## Development

[edit]

Originally it was sung by Tony Award Winning actress Idina Menzel, who is known for, as Ben Brantley of the New York Times describes it, her "iron strong larynx". Stephen Schwartz composed it specifically to showcase Menzel's belting talent, in addition to giving her a second-act solo song. Idina Menzel has been quoted as saying that this song was her favourite to sing in the show as it "reminded her of her Bat Mitzvah."[citation needed]

## Recordings

[edit]

The song, along with the rest of the musical, was translated into eight languages. 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

[edit]

1. ^ Wicked the Musical Wicked in Depth -- All about the magical show Wicked --aWizard of Oz prequel story musicalschwartz.com, accessed 3 December 2018
2. ^ ""No Good Deed," Wicked Soundtrack, Stephen Schwartz : The Listening Blog". Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
3. ^ "Stephen Schwartz Speaks about Opera and Wicked (Archived copy)". 2007-04-23. Archived from the original on 2010-01-18. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
4. ^ Wicked 10th Anniversary, UMC, 2013-12-16, retrieved 2020-06-11
5. ^ "Wicked: 5th Anniversary Special Edition". www.amazon.com. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
6. ^ BACKSTAGE ON BROADWAY WITH WILLEMIJN VERKAIK youtube.com, accessed 3 December 2018

* v
* t
* e

The Wicked Years by Gregory Maguire

Books|

* Wicked (1995)
* Son of a Witch (2005)
* A Lion Among Men (2008)
* Out of Oz (2011)

Characters|

* Elphaba
* Wicked Witch of the West
* Glinda
* Fiyero
* Nessarose
* Boq
* Madame Morrible
* Wizard of Oz
* Cowardly Lion
* Dorothy Gale

Musical|

| Songs|

* "The Wizard and I"
* "Popular"
* "Defying Gravity"
* "As Long as You're Mine"
* "No Good Deed"
* "For Good"

|

Other|

* Awards and nominations
* Wannabe Wicked
* A Very Wicked Halloween

Film series|

* Wicked (2024)
* soundtrack
* score
* accolades
* Wicked: For Good (2025)

* v
* t
* e

Idina Menzel

* Awards and nominations
* Discography

Studio albums|

* Still I Can't Be Still
* Here
* I Stand
* Holiday Wishes
* Idina
* Christmas: A Season of Love

Live albums|

* Live: Barefoot at the Symphony

Singles|

* "Take Me or Leave Me"
* "Defying Gravity"
* "Brave"
* "I Dreamed a Dream"
* "Let It Go"
* "Making Today a Perfect Day"
* "Into the Unknown"
* "Love Power"

Other songs|

* "La Vie Bohème"
* "Seasons of Love"
* "The Wizard and I"
* "As Long as You're Mine"
* "No Good Deed"
* "For Good"
* "For the First Time in Forever"
* "Show Yourself"
* "A Whole New World"

Concert tours|

* I Stand tour
* Idina Menzel: Live at Radio City
* Idina Menzel: World Tour
* A Season of Love Tour

Related articles|

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* Aaron Lohr (husband)

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