Something Bad - Commentary

"Something Bad" is a number that, in the show, can be something that you sort of fly through. But in this one, it's important to understand the animal story because it is what Elphaba discovers that is darker here at Shiz. It's going to be her motivation to go see the wizard. It's going to be the thing she wants for herself more than de-greenifying herself. So we have to really land it. And so this relationship with, uh, with Dillamond is very important. So we beefed up how they meet, how they interact. And so we made it so that it wasn't just Dillamond singing about it, that it was this sort of secret messages within his quarters. That actually his quarters wasn't just a place he lives, but it was a living record of what's happening at Oz. We get to see that this is a problem that's been growing and that's all on the record, and she realizes it's bigger than she even thought from the very beginning, and that this is a problem that no one can help except for maybe the wizard.

We're doing this "Beh-eh-eh-eh" thing, and it'll always sound like a person doing a goat impersonation. So they were toying with the idea of blending in a real goat sound. But it is a person playing a goat, so why can't it be? You know, suspend your disbelief, and can it be a person doing a goat sound? But that's kind of fun to think about.