What's Hot From Spamalot 2/6

I've noticed that now, on an almost daily basis, there is lots of news and tidbits to be found online from the fans who are attending Spamalot. So, for the next few months, when there is something awesome to report (as if there ever won't be), we'll include those items here in What's Hot From Spamalot. Bigger Spamalot stories will have their own article. So, here goes Edition 1 of What's Hot From Spamalot!

From The Clay Board Spamalot Week 3 Thread

• From Clayngel - Clayngel is one of the lucky ones who got to go onstage during Spamalot because the grail was in her seat! The picture taken with her onstage is at the beginning of our column above. She said about this experience that it was:

  ...one of the most memorable and special moments ever...I am surprised I didn't pass out when I got to go up there because I was shaking so badly. But it was amazing...I stared into those green eyes and just watched him singing to me. I'm still in an Aiken-fog and don't remember the whole thing...

• From katymom at CV

  News from Spamalot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Clayoradoan called and they're selling Clay Spamalot buttons tonight and hopefully tomorrow there will be tshirts. It's quite full and it seems to be primarily NJU's...He's doing great and fits in totally. The LOTL is the same as last night, so Hannah is not yet back.

• From Morganette at the CH:

  Just got back to the hotel from the show and I'll try to do a little recap....
  
  I see it's already been reported about Shannon.....At the stage door, Clay came out with his arm around a redheaded girl, and introduced her to the crowd, and said, "she's the one that helps me get my pants on and off." It was really cute! And Jerome wasn't there, but another guy was.
  
  Clay was wearing the light blue Carolina hoody and looked great.
  
  I bought one of the buttons, they're really nice. Bought a tee shirt too that says "I'm not dead yet". I asked if they were going to have tee shirts with Clay on them, and she said they hope to get Clay shirts in tomorrow, but she didn't know if there'd be a picture of him on them, she said something about a shield. I hope the Clay items will all become available online.
  
  The place was packed again, it really looked like it might have been sold out. The view from the second row is NICE!! And it's interesting how you can see right down into the orchestra pit!
  
  The crowd seemed more enthusiastic than last night, not near as many kids there and more Clay fans, it sounded like. I was talking to a lady in line while waiting to get in, and she commented she wasn't a Monty Python fan, and she didn't like any of their movies, especially the Holy Grail one. We figured she must have been surprised when she discovered what the play was about! She said she didn't like the Monty Python movie called Blazing Saddles either! Hmmmmm....haha!
  
  I noticed a part that I haven't seen anyone mention yet......During the Camalot scene, when the knight brings out the big Spam towards the audience singing Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, then Clay goes out to center stage and sings "Lovely spam, wonderful Spam" a couple of times, and another knight has to pull him back as if they think he'll just keep singing......It's very funny!
  
  As the people were exiting the theater, we noticed that pieces of the confetti (they're quite large) that had landed on them were blowing off and flying up into the sky, swirling all around. When they explode the confetti over the audience at the end of the show there's lots of it everywhere. We wondered if they just sweep it up and reuse it each day.
  
  It's much colder here tonight, with more wind. I hope everyone traveling in the snowy areas can make it to NY. I saw in the paper it's supposed to be about 20 degrees colder here tomorrow.
  
  All in all, the show tonight seemed to me like it was a little more "on" than last night, and Clay seemed more relaxed and friendly at the stage door. He was kidding around with Rick Holmes (Lancelot) who was also signing a few autographs, saying that they should just start signing each other's names.
  
  We were a little disappointed that Hannah W. wasn't there again, but the understudy did a nice job.

• From AustenFan:

  That was an absolutely amazing show. Such a live audience. People cracked up. During the guard people people were laughing so hard they almost couldn't breathe. Just all out laughter the whole time. Clay has got to have one of the best 'deadpans' I've ever seen. May come in handy with Shannon getting launched on the shuttle. And the scene afterwards with Lancelot and the dancers had more energy than I've seen in the past. I think they played off the huge response from 'You Won't Succeed'
  
  Important details? The 'raising of the tunic' on the mid to low side. Last week we got rather a high tunic rise. I guess he wanted to give us all a chance to recover.
  
  Non Clay related changes - when Tim the Enchanter described the fierce 'killer rabbit' - instead of saying 'look at him go after that daisy' while the rabbit chewed up a flower - he said 'look at him go after that mushroom' and there was a mushroom on stage instead of the daisy. Why? I ask not such deep and important questions. I just sit back and enjoy.
  
  Some ad-libbing in the C101 scene. And a very lovely lady won. She looked so sweet up there. Clay's first scene in the window was just hysterical. He got a laugh on every line. He was so comfortable with it that he just played with it and got every laugh out of it. The timing with the other actors on stage was so spot on.
  
  Clay got great applause when he appeared in the All For One number. Clay's 'Idol Of Our Age' and yodeling into the super high held note - got huge applause. People laughed big time at that moment.
  
  The audience just erupted for the big number 'You Won't Succeed On Broadway'. They burst into applause even before the Bottle Dance because Clay's inflections and timing was so great. He got laughs for the dialogue part and not just the dancing. So the audience was primed. And when Clay started 'shaking his thing'....they went wild.
  
  Another understudy for Lady Of The Lake. Different woman than the last understudy I saw. While the other understudy had better vocals and much more power (this woman could barely be heard in the duets) - she had much better comic timing and a better feel for the character. She played for laughs and didn't take it too seriously. So I think it worked better. When I was at the stage door a while back Hannah Waddingham (Lady Of The Lake) came out to sign autographs and we were telling her what a great voice she has. She said it was 'knackered' as she wasn't used to doing the two shows on Sunday. They do four shows in two days which is rough. Maybe she's finding that tough to get used to and that's why she's missed some performances.
  
  The Knights of Nid did another rap that ended in 'Stay In School'. Shoutout to Brooklyn in the rap so enjoy all you Brooklyn folk.
  
  You all know about the 'pants remover' by now. And Clay kibbitzed (that Yiddish for joked around with - Clay is gettin down with Jewish culture ya know) - with Rick Holmes who plays Lancelot. He was very gracious in signing autographs. I think you heard about 'signing each others names.
  
  Anyway, just a great night. To quote someone from the crowd, 'Clay, you rock'. And boy did Clay rock out during the dance scenes. I'm seeing abdominal flexiibilty ladies. Shake it baby.