For anyone who is still keeping track at home of my BMI ups and downs and nervousness and all that, you may remember that I said of our four songs, we had one that was going to be a pretty major overhaul of a re-write… Well. We did the overhaul, and we presented it.
[The Good Place season 1 spoilers ahead!]
So, this song is for Trevor (the demon played by Adam Scott). We musicalized the moment where Eleanor’s in the bar with Trevor after Chidi has taken “real” Eleanor around to see the neighborhood.
In our first attempt at the song, the hook was “You Know Where You Belong,” and basically every A section was reminding Eleanor about some bad things she’d done on Earth, and almost guilting her about how she doesn’t belong, so just come to The Bad Place already.
And a big overarching note from our class/moderators was ‘we already understand the bad person she was. We don’t need a big song reminding us of every thing she’s done wrong. If you wanna sell The Bad Place, sell The Bad Place. Make it sound cooler and more inviting.”
So… We Made a song called “It’s Better to Be Bad.” Trevor touts how awesome the Bad Place is with their cool parties and cool residents, and all this great stuff.
And then(!) our big overarching note was that maybe he doesn’t need to be such a salesman… Shouldn’t it more be him convincing her that she belongs there?
And it’s like [*mouth agape*] – you… you’re asking us for the song we already gave you?
So, now I don’t really know what to do, or which direction to lean toward, or if this is even a salvageable song for our final presentation. As this one just seems to not be hitting the pocket…
So, my old “oh, we’re in such a ‘Good Place’” vibe was based off of the idea that we’d present the overhaul the way they wanted, and then get (hopefully) reasonably small notes for the re-write.
But now to feel so lost… I don’t feel in as much of a Good Place anymore! (Eep!)
[For more on my experience with the BMI Musical Theatre Experience, you can go here.]