What's Hot From Spamalot 3/23

So what's been hot over in the great city of New York this Easter weekend? Well, we've got some great fan reviews, stage door pictures, and reports about Clay performing with a hurt hip, and doing a fantastic job! So get your fans out and get ready for some hot news from Spamalot!!

• First, as many of you know, Clay apparently hurt his hip around Friday of this past week. It was thought at first that he would not be doing the Saturday matinee show, but being the trooper that Clay is, he did perform in the matinee after all. Hannah, however, was out as Lady of The Lake. Here are a couple of reports about this. As always, all of our reports come from fans at The Clayboard. From lsdollylovesclay:

  Matinee report just called in...Lots of fans up front...Clay appears to be fine.....he didn't seem to crouch down as much as usual during the slow motion scene...but caller wasn't sure if it was just their imagination. No one would ever know anything was wrong....everyone is having fun and I hope to get another call after the performance to talk about how his big number went. Hanna is missed!

• From bashfulnana:

  Crom the CV: Clay did fine today. He did well in the bottle dance, he did the stage door -- signed quick and went back in. Someone said they thought he was limping outside, but she didn't see it. She did notice that during the slo-mo bit he didn't do the deep knee bends very deep.

  Sunday night, March 23, is Chris Sieber's last night in Broadway's Spamalot. He has been exceptional as Sir Galahad, The Black Knight, and Prince Herbert's father. We wish him the best of luck as he moves on to perform in Shrek. Lilred sums it up very nicely for us:

  Chris is going into another play, Shrek. He'll be playing Lord Farquaad. He came back from England with Hannah Waddingham and Spamalot knew he would only be returning to his original role of Galahad for a couple of months. I know we'll miss Chris - he and Clay had great interaction in this play...

  
  
• Here is a stage door video from Saturday afternoon, March 22, taken by Aikenfan71 that is up at YouTube. If you look when he first comes out the door, you can see that he is limping just a bit:
  
  
  
  
• Also, here are some great closeup pictures of Clay taken by tsunamimommy:
  
  
  
  
• Here's a couple of great pictures taken by OKCClayFan of Clay signing her friend's laptop. What a great idea!
  
  
  
  
• Here's a great first-time recap from justclay12:

  this is my first chance to actually post since i got back from ny and i really wish i had tiggy's gift for recaps, however i don't so i'll just add some bits of info that i picked up. i took my 21 year old daughter with me, who is one of those normal fans that don't get all excited over anything clay, and she loved it. we actually got to see it 3 times, and the only reason we didn't see it 4 is because it was sold out on tuesday. and for anyone who has limited funds, i really recommend sro because of the 3 places that we saw the show from, i think i enjoyed those the most. not much on balcony because i felt too removed from the stage, and even though we had 4th row on the left for one show, which was great for the tushy shot, but we missed a lot of clay's expressions and i think we both got a crick in our necks because it was on the far left. for sro, we still felt really close to the stage, and we could see all of it.
  
  my daughter loved the show, and i haven't seen her laugh so much since she got to the age where it was no longer cool to laugh. and what's even better, she would actually like to go see it again. she loved how silly clay was but she also enjoyed all the other performers. i was so glad that i actually got tom deckman's signature one of the nights because i really got a kick out of him and the faces he makes. i actually got most of the leads signatures during my time there, and i was able to congratulate and thank everyone who signed, except for clay because with him, i lose all ability to speak and can just stare. when he's that close, i don't think i even get that goofy grin i usually get when i see him because i just go into some kind of trance or something. thank god he doesn't look up when he's signing to see that blank look on my face. i did get his autograph though, once on my playbill and once on my spamalot t-shirt, so now i not only have the autograph, but he actually touched my t-shirt. i was so excited, at least on the inside, outside i was still the zombie.
  
  some random bits of info that i got: the actor who plays patsy was out because he actually teaches at nyu so he was on spring break also and had gone to ohio. when hannah came out, she posed for pictures with some of the people who waited and she was very nice, as were all of them, but when she got to me, i was able to speak at that point, since clay was safely back inside, and i told her how great she was, and how lucky since she got to pinch clay's butt. she said she tries to rub all over him on stage because he is so serious when he's performing. so i think that even though he looks like he is silliness itself when he is on stage, he really takes his performance seriously, and he wants to give 1000% while he is on that stage. which is even more obvious when we see him getting on that stage to perform when he's sick, or when his hip is hurt, as it appears now. i did see that stagedoor video, and he does look like he was limping. he is such a trouper and i admire him so much.
  
  as for the video, does anyone who was there know what was happening at the barricade that made clay back away at one point, and the security guard say something to the people in the crowd? i'd never seen that happen before in any of the stage door videos so didn't know if someone was getting a little grabby or something.
  
  and on a final note, unless i can think of anything else later, i really hate the public transportation in nyc and nj. my least stress filled day was when we decided to just walk around. not only do you need maps for the subways, etc, they also need to come with a set of instructions. very frustrating. but we did enjoy our stay, other than that, so now i have to save money for more trips to spamalot before clay leaves. who needs food and i've been wanting to lose weight anyway.

• A Sunday Matinee recap from Clayniac24:

  The matinee performance was SPECTACULAR! It was a full house, including SRO. And the audience was wild with laughter and excitement. Clay was super! Just absolutely adorable, hilarious, and danced up a storm. But two of the cast members helped him down from the piano, so his hip is not totally recovered yet. He got a loud standing ovation when he came out for his curtain call. He was smiling and happy. However, he didn't come out to the stage door. Jerome came out and said that Clay wasn't feeling well and wasn't coming out. Disappointment reigned, but everyone understood.

• From Clayscience:

  My recap of the Saturday, March 22 matinee:
  
  My oldest daughter and I got up very early yesterday and took the bus from Massachusetts to NYC. It was very convenient as the Port Authority station was just 3 blocks from the Shubert Theatre, an easy 10 minute walk. We got in around 10:45 AM. I took a cell pic of my daughter in front of the Clay poster; we sent it as a pix message to my younger daughter who was at her HS musical practice at home. After wandering and exploring the area a bit, we went to Juniors for lunch. The service was great and the portions were large. (I did not like the onion rings though - 95% batter, 5% onion). Juniors was participating in the Tap Project for Unicef, so we were able to donate as part of our bill. The location next to the theatre was great too. Then we did some exploring and a little bit of shopping in the various Broadway shops in the area (in an attempt to stay warm since it was fairly cold out). And we bought touristy things for the family members who were at home -I Love NYC pajama bottoms for my younger daughter, and "I fart in your general direction" pin for my husband.
  
  We were aware when we left on the bus trip of the possibility of an understudy and had already made the decision to attend the show regardless (otherwise, a waste of a day). I was thrilled that he did go ahead and perform. But we didn't learn till we returned home last night about the confusion of whether he would perform.
  
  It was the first show for both of us. The show was hysterically funny. I was worried whether my daughter would like the show, but she found it very entertaining and funny. She especially liked Chris Siebert's political commentary scene (so I'm glad we were able to see the show before his last performance today). She looooooved the coconut scene too and really enjoyed Clay's big number. The understudy Jenny Hill did a great job filling in for Hannah. The Diva's lament song was just fantastic. I adored all of Clay's scenes. His accent, facial expressions, and timing were just awesome. I laughed so hard during the castle guard scene with Herbert's father. I can't believe he was able to do the bottle dance so well, given his injury. It was obvious that dance got a great reaction from the people near us in the theatre. I do think Clay slightly favored one leg during the show but my daughter said she didn't notice anything wrong. Needless to say, I loved the show too and will be counting the minutes until I see it again in May. When I come in May, my husband and other daughter will be with me.
  
  Today, we downloaded the original cast soundtrack from itunes. The music is quite infectious.
  
  We stayed for the stage door (about 4 back in the crowd, so no real chance of an autograph). Then we made the decision to try for the 5 pm bus to Massachusetts instead of waiting for the 7 pm bus. Since Clay was a bit late getting out to the barricades, it was cutting it close but somehow we managed to make it just as the bus was boarding. So we were home 2 hours earlier than expected. All in all, it was a great mother-daughter day. We're a bit tired now though.

• Lilred gives us this report from njrp4clay who talked with Jerome about Clay doing the shows with his hip pain:

  QUOTE(njrp4clay @ Mar 23 2008, 07:26 PM)]As I was going up the steps to the mezzanine I ran into Jerome. I said Hi to him and we had a several minute conversation. He told me Clay wanted to perform because he didn't want to disappoint anyone and that he decided to do yesterday's matinee because Hannah wasn't performing. He said he was definitely doing the matinee today but at that time didn't know if he would do the night show. He said Clay is in pain but he's taking his medicine. I didn't ask him for specifics about the injury. He said that the new Sir Galahad is pretty good and that there shouldn't be any problems. He said it was sad to see Chris go. I thanked him and told him to tell Clay to take it easy and that to thank him for doing the show. I also told him that I brought my son who hadn't seen Clay perform since 2004 in rain in Harrington. He was very nice.

• We'll close our fan recaps with this one from Claymelia2:

  I'm going to be brief, the night show was sold out and no Clay at the stagedoor. There were a few people who stayed after Jerome said that Clay was not coming out, waiting for the other casts specially Chris Siebert, his last day today. Jerome said Clay is still not feeling well.
  At the curtain call Chris gave a bow to the audience, but didn't say anything.
  As always, Clay was fabulous. He is getting better and better with the dances and the acting and I think there were lines added in the drunken guard scene which I don't remember, sorry. The conversation seems a little longer. and everybody was laughing. As Brother Maynard, he sang AMEN and so were the knights. This is first time I've heard it.