Greatest Hits One: “For Good”
Collecting the results of our Top Ten vote for Show Choir’s Greatest Hits, we noticed two things: first, that our cast members generally seem to prefer more modern musicals. Secondly, that there seemed to be an appetite for delving back into the Show Choir vaults and reacquainting ourselves with songs we haven’t sung for a long while!
Such is the case for the first of our Greatest Hits we’re putting under the spotlight here on the Bristol Show Choir Blog: “For Good”, from the musical Wicked. Based on the 1995 novel by Gregory Doran and of course inspired by characters and locations from L Frank Baum and of course the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, Wicked tells the story of the unlikely friendship between Elphaba and Glinda: the Witches of Oz!
Wicked premiered in 2003 in San Francisco before transferring to Broadway the same year. The original cast featured the likes of Idina Menzel as Elphaba, Kristen Chenoweth as Glinda, and Norbert Leo Butz as Fiyero. Steven Schwartz composed the music and wrote the lyrics, and the show is currently Broadway’s fifth longest running musical.
“For Good” is sung in Act II of the show and is a duet between Elphaba and the newly renamed Glinda, as the two reflect on their friendship and bid each other farewell. We think it’s this sense of friendship and meaningful message that resonates strongly with so many of our Show Choir members, and it’s been so fantastic to revisit the song as it was one of the first few songs we learned when Bristol Show Choir launched five years ago…
The key for our arrangement of this song are the dynamics: knowing when to build the sound and when to tail it off for the best emotional impact, this will also help us work on the characterisation and give the number the colour and personality it needs. We’ve been massively impressed by how everyone new to the Show Choir family this term has tackled learning this number in such a short time with such enthusiasm and confidence, and with our original members picking it up again so easily after such a long break; the song itself is quite intricate in terms of each part of the choir having its own rythmns and timing they need to lead or mirror from another part, so we really need to focus on listening and reacting to ensure this song is in the best shape it can be. If the standard at our first and indeed subsequent rehearsals have been anything to go by, we won’t have any worries on this score!
Stay tuned for the next blog, where we’ll be going from the mythical land of Oz, to the very real town of Gander in Newfoundland!
