What's Hot From Spamalot 3/15

Saturday is always an especially hot day for Spamalot news. And this Saturday is no exception. Let's start with a little Hannah Waddingham news.

• From The BBC News - This is a video of an interview with Hannah by the BBC entitled Spamalot Star Woos America. In it, you can see Hannah's New York Apartment, snippets of Hannah singing with Chris (Sir Galahad), Hannah making a snow angel, and a multitude of other interesting things.
• In a blog called Hesira Knits, the blogger tells about their trip to New York, including taking in Spamalot. About Clay, she says:

  We saw Spamalot which was a riot. I was a little skeptical at first, but it was more Monty Python than the actual movies. I didn't think Clay Aiken was Python material, but, I have a newfound respect for the guy. He was able to poke fun at himself and all the rumors surrounding him.

  .

Now for a few fan reports, taken from The Clayboard. First, we hear that the Saturday matinee was completely sold out! Great news and a great start to our 4-show weekend!

• Canuck2010 gives us the following intermission report: Recap at intermission from toni7babe and Scarlett:
  

  Looks like full house. They have front row center seats and the conductor said "good afternoon ladies" : They got a kick out of that! toni hasn't been for four weeks and she said that she noticed that it is much more fine tuned now. New little nuances added that are great. Incredible energy from everyone. no subs today, regular cast.
  
  Clay absolutely magnificent - very animated. In the "Not Dead Yet" part, he is much more involved and moving around and making expressive faces! : More dirt on his face. Looking really grimy!
  
  During the Dancing girls scene, Clay says to Sir Galahad, "Can I touch them? or "Can I touch?" and Sir Galahad says "We'll meet up with them later"
  
  Clay is just killing them with his dancing!
  
  Lots of fans in the audience - tons of applause.

• Linlas gives us this report concerning the afternoon stage door appearance:

  Just got a call with a stage door report....from Hopelessly Devoted
  
  It was sold out....big crowd at the stage door....already gathered when they got out there..... He had on sandals.....
  
  Jamie was there in one of the box seats
  
  He started signing at the usual end....there was some commotion, someone said, "no shoving"......Clay stepped back and Jerome moved him to the other end...and he worked his way back to the beginning.....Shannon came out the stage door, he yelled...."Shannnnnon" and grabbed her and hugged her.....
  
  She said everyone was more aninamated....the Knights of Ni was about Elliott Spitzer again......very energetic bottle dance again, added in a few new dance steps since the last time she saw it.... Sound guy in hysterics during the drunken guard scene......
  
  Rick came out at the same time as Clay and signed at the front end....after Jerome took Clay to the other end......
  

• Great Report from HopelesslyDevoted:

  Oh wow that was FUN! Sold out show according to the box office...yay! It was my first time in SRO...and I have to say it wasn't bad! Definitely a great option, the ledge is velvety and cushiony and you can see everything fine except for the first tower guard scene...for which I had to bend down a bit. Stood next to a PYT who had not seen the play before and laughed her butt off the entire time! The coolest thing for me was during the drunk guard scene when I looked over at the sound booth guy and he was literally rolling with laughter...he's had to have seen the scene a million times, yet he was still beaming!
  
  LOVE how Clay has perfected the tower guard...love the twirling of the helmet strap and the inflection in his voice...escpecially when he says..."couldnt bring a coconut back anyway"...lol He was very animated today...the whole cast was....I saw he added a few more dance steps here and there...got huge applause for his all for one 'idol of my age line'..so much so that you couldnt hear the rest of what he was singing...made a really cute face when galahad pulled him back into the line. Trying to remember more details, but the 'fog' is still pretty heavy...the knights of Ni continued on with the spitzer bit...something about "it's 3 AM and all the innocent children are in their beds but the phone is ringing at the white house..." ....raucous laughter ensued especially when rick said "Im a +%%*!" ....Clay didnt appear to break character from my vantage point but did have his hand up to his mouth.....the 'brave sir robin' scene was priceless...his facial expressions were spot on....the funniest I have scene....and of course by the time we get to prince herbert the audience is sooo primed they are literally rolling in the aisles with laughter....definitely one of my favorite scenes in the entire play...Clay was sooo cute at the end...he did the "and I've found my grail...musical theater!" with such a funny high pitched gleeful voice....and he did a very funny dance with patsy and bevedere that started out with them kind of kicking and then doing this kind of 'stirring the pot' dance move...very funny.
  
  We were practically the first few to leave the theater and were quite suprised to find atleast 1-2 rows of people deep waiting already. By the time Clay made it out there it was atleast 10 people deep! Looked as if there were well over 100-200 people out there. When he came out he started at his usual side but there was some sort of commotion which I didnt see as I was squished in the second row like a sardine...the security guard (?) possibly said "no shoving" and Clay stood back with his hands in the air...at which point jerome very quickly scooted him off to the other end. As Clay went that way he found shannon...screamed her name with a kind of 'mock' scream and hugged her in a big bear hug....it was cute! He then proceded to start signing at the other end and made his way our way. He had on sandals! And a dark hoodie...darned if I can remember what it said...fog and all....I couldn't take my eyes off his face...he looked gorgeous!...I did manage to get video but this is a new camera for me and for some reason I cant get it to play with sound....may take awhile to figure this out...
  
  I love this show and the entire cast...I cant imagine ever getting tired of seeing it! Clay you were awesome!

• From LosAngelesDawn, here is a great observation about Clay's choice in doing Spamalot on Broadway:

  At the time, I couldn't figure it, but now I think that Clay's doing Spamalot is a stroke of brilliance on his part! If he'd done a typical Andrew Lloyd Webber type of Broadway show, he would have been playing into the stereotype hyped by Simon's insults that singers with powerful voices are not good enough for the recording industry, that they belong in musical theatre (or Broadway). Clay mentioned this in some/a recent interview. So, what does Clay do? Spamalot, a show that doesn't showcase his voice, but does show his other talents - his flair for comedy, his dancing ability, his acting skills. The stage door is crowded, the fans love him, locals speculate who the star attraction is over there, the cast loves him, the media's eye is watching for his new album release.... Brilliant, positively brilliant!
  
  Every performer would love to have a Broadway credit on their resume and Clay did it without proving Simon right; in fact, proving him wrong! And so much more, proving that he has so many talents and skills beyond just singing. I love it! Proving all that, making himself so much more marketable (dare we think silver screen), and slapping down Simon while he does it! Brilliant, Clay, just brilliant!

• Belle6827's report includes some great comments from her husband. Here are some exerpts from her report:

  
  ...I saw Clay previously on opening weekend and I think the adrenaline was rushing more that night because of not knowing what to expect but tonight I relaxed more and took in more of the whole show. This is a marvelous cast. The things that stand out for me is how Clay really stays in character at all times. Even when he is not front and center, his facial expressions, his hands, his body language are in keeping with the character he is at that moment. I think he is totally "da bomb" as the guard when he is supposed to guard Prince Herbert. He is that guard who can't follow simple directions from the King. Clay's facial expressions in this part are just perfect. He has such a sober look about him. When Clay is the tower guard, I watched his hands fiddle with the straps of his helmet and I was drawn to how pale his skin is. The other thing that stood out for me, is how his eyes pop out ... they are crystal clear pools of emerald in all their sparkling beauty and I was sitting first row mezzanine. I can only imagine how mesmerizing they must be from the front rows. WOWZA!
  
  My husband was with me. As a matter of fact, he is quite prominent in one of the pictures I saw over at CV. He was able to get a signed playbill and so did I. I promised one to someone on this board who is not able to make the show. I asked my DH for his impressions. He said that was some different kind of show. He thought it funny at times and laughed quite heartedly but at times, thought like Clay, it was the stupidest thing he ever saw. He was impressed with Hannah's voice but wished he could hear her sing straight out without the OTT stuff. He knew ahead of time that Clay didn't sing all that much but still wished that he could have heard more. DH thought everyone played their roles well and he said without prompting from me that he thought Clay was as good or better than the rest of the cast. DH also commented that it is very clear that Clay Aiken is more than a singer....
  
  ...There was a family of five sitting next to me who were all Monty Python fans... a husband, wife and three sons. They laughed at all the right places including Clay's parts. A lot of laughter from all directions. To me, it seemed that the audience skewed more to the older side with a lot of men. My DH even remarked how there were a lot of men at the show. While Clay did receive a lot of applause at the curtain call, I do think for the most part, the applause was very evenly distributed tonight.
  
  DH and I made it to the stage door line pretty quickly. We were in the third row but there were two short people in front of me so I was able to see Clay very well when he came around. I am always amazed at how large and in charge he looks on the stage but at a bus line or stage door line, he looks soooo young and vulnerable. I will say this. I was real close and I got a very good look at him tonight. He looked exceptionally handsome. His skin was gorgeous but again, those eyes. Just the most beautiful shade of green and while I detest eye makeup on men, I know he needs it for the show and they have his eye makeup very dark. I do prefer his natural color eyelashes but I have to say with those dark lashes framing those green eyes, I think most women given the chance would have a very difficult time saying no to Clay Aiken. I also noted his lips. Usually they are quite pink but tonight they seemed lighter than usual but absolutely perfectly-shaped lips. I was amused when he came out the stage door because I immediately noticed his black hoodie and then when he walked away, I noticed the very nice dark jeans that they fit him very well. What I was unable to see were his feet but I needn't worry, my DH blurted out "he's wearing sandals". It just cracked me up because he sounded like he knew the fans always want a complete report including footwear.
  
  My husband looked all around at the people at the stage door line which was very full. He got a big kick out of the women stretching and reaching and vying for Clay's attention to sign something. He just shook his head and said "this blows my mind". We thought the stage door group was very respectful and for the most part, I thought there were a lot of new faces especially upfront at least I didn't recognize most of them.

Photo time!!! And today we have a lot of great photos from the Stage Door. You're gonna love these!!

From Disneydeb84:





From Tonibabe:





From BFS:

Tidbits 3/15

• The Advocate comments on the new Chicken Soup for the American Idol Soul book -

  I read about how Clay Aiken helped a young female fan’s body image by appearing to enjoy the company of a plus-size young woman in his hit “Invisible” video. From that moment on he requested that only regular-looking people be in his videos. This had nothing at all to do with making him look less geeky. He had love and inner healing to deliver.
  

• New York Magazine - Clay looking to purchase a condo in NYC?

  Long Island City: What if the rumors are true and Clay Aiken is moving to the same Arris Lofts that superstar D.J. Danny Tenaglia just bought into? Will scary hard-house remixes of the Spamalot score rattle the building?

• liQcity -

  In curbed’s coverage of the Clay Aiken rumor, there was an interesting line:
  
  …this could be some weird defining moment in the recent history of Long Island City as an emerging development hotspot.

• Curbed (WARNING: objectionable picture on website) -

  Look, we can think of about a thousand reasons why Clay Aiken buying an apartment at the Arris Lofts in Long Island City makes no sense, but the truth of the matter is that, yes, Clay Aiken is currently living in New York and starring in Spamalot and may want to stick around when his run is over

• All That Is Clay Aiken - radio is a dying format?

  It looks like music is now going by the way of ipods, mp3 players and cd players. You can also listen to your favorite music from you computer.
  
  I may change my mind when a certain singer's new CD drops. Until then - I have my CDs, my mp3 player and my computer.
  
  To keep this blog on topic and what it is about - Clay Aiken. :)

What's Hot From Spamalot 3/14

Its another What's Hot From Spamalot weekend, which means there usually is quite alot of hot items to report, what with two shows on Saturday and Sunday.

As always, we have some great fan reports from The Shubert. All fan reports come from The Clayboard.

Thursday night, Clay did not come out the Stage Door. Our first report gives us some information as to why he most likely did not.

• From crazyglue91152:

  d4kkks and I were also there last night (3/13) and when Jerome came out to tell the fans that Clay is not coming out, I immediately told d4kkks that we should go home already but she's still busy talking with clayngel so I went ahead and walked by myself along 44th St....then stopped when I saw the black SUV in front of one of the exit doors of Shubert Theatre. I then put down my bag of Spamalot goodies and put on my winter stuff slowly...one at a time...the hat, the scarf, the gloves plus the IPOD earphones....and then Jerome opened the door and Clay came out wearing his green sweatshirt with his hoodie on his head and went straight to the SUV....I said "Goodnight Clay"....and then right after him, a couple followed him inside the van....so I think the reason he didn't do the stage door last night was because he had some guests to entertain...maybe they're going to have dinner somewhere. I went back to the Stage Door and told d4kkks and 2 other Clay fans with her because they're still wondering if there was something that embarrassed him that night that made him decide not to do the Stage Door but were relieved to know that's not the case and we went to our rides home with a smile on our faces for having another great time with our BF who's getting better and better, more funnier and sillier every time we see him at Spamalot. Oh what a Knight, indeed! See you again our dearest brave Sir Robin next week.

• Here's a nice long report brought to us by lilred who found it at CV:

  wandocleo at FCA
  
  ...I'll tell you mostly about what I observed tonight because I was so enthralled on Tuesday that I could hardly control myself much less my memory. We were in the center section row C on Tuesday and in row B right beneath the tower tonight, so we were looking right up into Clay's face. I was watching his long fingers. When he talked, he was playing with the strap on his helmet. Then, when he started to ignore King Arthur, he turned away (like ignoring him) for a moment and his fingers wrapped around the corner of the window. He used his hands a lot when he was talking. When he was talking about the swallows he had his fingers fanned out and made like a bird-flying, with the hands mimicking wings.
  
  When he was talking about becoming a Knight with Lancelot, he says "It's not all dressing up and dancing" and he kicked his leg up behind him. So cute.
  When the "Not dead yet" guy is singing, Clay stands there with his mouth open and gaping, looking totally shocked. He's wearing brown scuffed shoes, by the way. I checked them out up close...
  
  ...When Sir Robin came back out as a knight, he was wearing black shoes that had blotches of silver all over them. (Not that I have a foot fetish.)
  When Clay was dancing, his feet were lifting up as he was rocking back and forth.
  When the dancing girls came out swinging the ball things (What ARE those things?) Clay looks just gleeful-big goofy grin and we could hear him say "Oh, look at that." Honestly, he does joyful glee SO well.
  
  Later, in the Vegas scene after he takes his glass he is just running around with his mouth open in a state of ecstasy. He was over to the side with Sir Galahad and he was shimmying like the girls were doing with such joyful abandon and then he kicked up his leg and grabbed at his hip as though it hurt...
  
  ...When the BIG FEET of God descend from the sky, Clay put his head down and hands over his eyes. When he talked about someone swallowing the grail, his hand touched his chest. I loved when Clay was waving that torch around and tottering over the mountain looking just so confused and scared. When he did the slow motion, Clay bent WAY lower than the others. We're talking serious thigh control here. His riding through the 4 seasons was funny as he shivered for winter, tongue out for summer, and hands up to protect himself when the guy came with the water.
  
  In the French taunter scene, Clay threw his leg over and talked to his horse. It was so sweet. In the scenes where Clay gets scared or nervous, he tends to put his left gloves to his mouth and sort of chew on a finger. When the GIANT wooden rabbit came out, Clay said, "OH WOW" and grabbed the rabbit. Later, when they realize that the rabbit is inside the French castle, and they aren't inside the rabbit, Clay rubbed his face in dismay...
  
  ...Clay just rocked on "You can't succeed on Broadway if you don't have any Jews." He looked SO serious during the stomping and dance. Then, when he gets the yarmulke and the cane to dance, he called out "Papa, can you hear me?!" as he started to dance.
  
  Clay is a great drunk-weaving a little, lower lip sort of out, glazed look on his face. The whole scene was just so funny. When Lance came running in and stabbed Clay, he opened his mouth, stuck out his tongue and fell over.
  
  Rabbit scene-Clay was laughing like crazy at the rabbit until it got vicious.
  Brother Maynard was funny, as always. He just sort of tottered out and pushed his glasses up a couple of times when he was reading. Clay looked so happy at the end and did his filled with glee look.
  
  Both Tuesday and tonight the houses were packed. There may have been a few stray empty seats, but I didn't see them and there were people all the way to the top of the balcony both nights. VERY appreciate crowd. Everyone got big cheers, but I think the biggest cheers were for Clay.
  
  Clay came out to sign but I couldn't get near him on Tuesday because there were so many people. He didn't come out tonight. Not sure why. I couldn't hear what Jerome said-again BIG crowd of people waiting. I'm sure many were disappointed.
  
  (This report may travel.)

• From Clayngel:

  Back from another Spamtastic evening!
  
  I got a Standing Room ticket tonight and my spot was next to d4kkks! My goodness we had so much fun! Since we've both been to multiple shows we giggled when little things were changed up by Clay or others in the cast and we just enjoyed the show so much. It was great to have someone else to share it with because we were both standing there alone. We also both reminiced over our "Best Peasant" experiences. We were a bit fangirly but it was fun!
  
  Clay seemed very enthusiastic tonight and added a bunch of little nuances to his performance. It was actually a bit different from the way he has been doing things recently. He loves to change things up! He looks so comfortable dancing now and adds extra dance steps in at random moments. He did a considerable bit of shimmying tonight!
  I also enjoyed watching him during the French Taunter scene because he was having such cute reactions to the taunting. He just keeps adding more and more to the show everytime I see it. No two shows are ever the same!
  
  I've definitely decided that my favorite Clay-scene is his exchange with Herbert's father as the drunken guard. It is absolutely hysterical and gets funnier every show. I think this scene really shows off his comedic timing ability and he is able to be so goofy and funny.
  
  Clay's big number got a huge response! People were laughing as he sat down at the piano to play and I think that fueled him up a bit because his stomping and the bottle dance were very energetic! The last few shows I have noticed that he sings his big on-top-of-the-piano notes a bit differently than how he started. He now sings them more like how he sings his glory notes and a bit less operatic. I think it works and it's nice to hear him sing like him for a minute. If that makes any sense.
  
  At curtain call Clay got the loudest applause and a bunch of people throughout the audience stood up when he came out. I didn't think they were all Claymates either, so it really seemed like he is winning over the NJUs!

• And here are some more pictures from the Stage Door for your viewing pleasure:
  
  

New Easter E-Cards from Spamalot

After the popularity of Spamalot's Valentine's cards, the Spamalot website has a cute Easter e-Card for you to send.

Check it out at the Spamalot website.

Tidbits 3/14

• From The Clayboard - 2claylu4evr tells us what she saw at a trip to Walmart:

  at least this is new to me.... went to walmart today and saw a display on the top shelve above the cds..... it said IDOL IS BACK and they have several pockets for different idols and one of them is clay... they had 3 MOAM cds....was nice to see that....did anyone see it?...the place where I saw this display was right next to the musical video dvds.... up on top to the left... right under the end of the artists that are at the end of the alphabet....walmart didnt have any clay for a while and now a few.

  Fanpower also saw this same display at her Walmart:

  At my Walmart, front and center above the pop artist area was a sign Idol is Back. Clay was in the center position with Kelly, Carrie, Daughtry on the sides. Only one Thousand Different Ways was in that slot and none behind his name in the regular music slots. But is was nice seeing his face in the center position.

  Better start checking your local Walmart stores. There might be a display up like this one soon!
• Playbill - Spamalot celebrates 3rd anniversary on March 17, presents special "3D" show on March 18, plus ticketing promotions:

  The musical, which is "lovingly ripped off" from the film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," began its run at Broadway's Shubert Theatre Feb. 14, 2005, and officially opened March 17. The production made its world premiere at Chicago's Shubert Theatre Dec. 21, 2004-Jan. 23, 2005.
  
  The company at Broadway's Shubert currently features Jonathan Hadary, Hannah Waddingham, Clay Aiken, Christopher Sieber, Brad Oscar, Tom Deckman, Rick Holmes and David Hibbard.

• Carolina On My Mind - Clay nation getting set for Clay's new CD -

  In interviews about his soon-to-be released CD, Clay Aiken has indicated that "On My Way Here," the possible title track, embodies his journey to where he is now, musically and in life.
  

Tidbits 3/13

Clay poses with Rosie O'Donnell and her wife who visited Clay at Spamalot this week.

• Clay mention on The Insider today -

  "Does Rosie want to book Clay Aiken on her Our Family cruise?
  Here's Rosie visiting Clay backstage at his starring gig in Broadway's
  Spamalot. False. That honor goes to American Idol's Danny Noriega."
  

• Poughkeepsie Journal - American Idol contestant Bucky Covington coming to town, following Clay's 2007 summer concert at the same venue -
  

  Bucky Covington, a finalist on the fifth season of "American Idol" will become the latest of the show's stars to make his way to town when he performs at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center later this month.
  
  Journal reporter Sean T. McMann, who has spoken with former "Idol" stars Clay Aiken and Taylor Hicks when they came to Poughkeepsie, has the all the information on Covington's appearance on his pop culture blog, "Sean's Space," which is just a click away at www.seantm.blogspot.com.

• Stamford Advocate - Jonas Brothers working with John Fields, a producer on ATDW, for their new album -

  Their self-titled second album went platinum and a new album, produced by John Fields (Jimmy Eat World, Clay Aiken), is set for release this summer.

• The Y Chromosome - AI blog -

  I’ve personally never bought a CD of an AI participant, although my wife has, and I think Clay Aiken is on her “list of five”. That may change, as the squeaky-clean Brooke White is my personal fave this year.

• Nothing here yet
  

MOAM and ATDW Go On Sale at iTunes

Measure of A Man and A Thousand Different Ways are on sale this week on Apple's iTunes Music Store for $7.99.

If you don't have iTunes, download it at Apple.com for your Mac or PC. You don't need an iPod to enjoy music off iTunes.

"Brian & The Biz" - Celeb Interviewer on His Life As a Claymate

We don't often hear from the male side of Clay's fanbase, so this article titled "My Life As A Claymate" is, quite simply, wonderful. Brian gives an honest, in depth view about Clay. Go to Brian's blog to read the full article. Here is an abridged version:

While this season of “American Idol” is shaping up as an especially exciting one full of surprises and reversals, I don’t know if I agree with the show’s claims that the current Season 7 features the best lineup of talent ever.

The second season was the one that really captured my attention, starting with an appearance by my friend Fred Bronson, who pitched the show the idea for the theme, “Billboard Number Ones.”

I started to grow more and more impressed with Clay, who shined on both ballads (Neil Sedaka’s “Solitaire”) and fun uptempo songs, like one of my alltime favorites, “Build Me Up Buttercup.” Then on the season finale, Clay let out a one-two knockout punch: first a transcendent version of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” (while Ruben sang a rather boring take on “Imagine”), followed by his soon to be number one hit, “This Is The Night,” which I liked much more than Ruben’s “Flying Without Wings.”

The first time I met Clay was at a radio studio across from the NBC building in Burbank where Clay was appearing on “The Tonight Show” that evening. Fred Bronson had been assigned to do one of the first in-depth interviews with Clay after his “Idol” stint, and as often happens, I tagged along. Fred conducted a long interview that covered Clay’s life from singing in the carpet department at Sears at age five all the way to the Idol finale, and along the way added a lot to his fans’ knowledge about their hero. I found Clay to be an excellent storyteller, funny and also brutally honest about his “Idol” song and wardrobe choices. One other thing surprised me: Clay gave me a hug when he left (a year later, when Fred interviewed Season 3’s Diana DeGarmo at the same studio, I gave her a hug as she was leaving, probably surprising her at the time… but then, I’m no Clay!).

Eventually, I got a chance to interview Clay myself, but it would have never happened if I hadn’t been at those earlier interviews. One of my friends hosts his own movie review show on TV. He was based in Portland, Oregon at the time and couldn’t make it back to Los Angeles to cover the festivities celebrating the DVD release of Disney’s “Aladdin.” He asked me to do the interviews on the red carpet outside Hollywood’s El Capitan Theater for him, and I gladly agreed, having never done any interviews for TV before. Many of the stars attending were featured in Disney produced shows, and I got a good number of them to talk to me. But when Clay arrived, it seemed like he was in a hurry to get inside and skipped talking to most of the gathered press. Fortunately, I caught the eye of his publicist, who recognized me from the earlier interview with Fred (as did Clay) and steered Clay over to me for a few minutes.

I got in four questions. First I asked Clay how he keeps his energy up on tour, to which he replied, “McDonald’s!” He laughed and added that he tries to change his show a little bit every night to keep things interesting for him, and in turn, the audience. I also asked him about his upcoming Christmas album as well as the song he did for the “Aladdin” DVD. But the best response I got from him came when I said that I know his female fans love him to death and go to great lengths to see him in concert, but does he ever hear from the husbands and boyfriends they drag along? Clay said every once in a while, he’ll see a T-shirt on a guy in the audience that says, “I got dragged to see him,” but to him the funniest thing was how the women manage to make it to the front row in front of the stage, leaving their men stewing fifteen rows back.

Vote for Clay at AmericanIdolMusic.com

The official American Idol Music website is running a poll asking you who your favorite Idol is. Clay is currently lagging very behind, so let's get voting!

VOTE FOR CLAY AT AMERICANIDOLMUSIC.COM

New JNT2005 Photos Surface

Several new photos from the 2005 Joyful Noise Tour were found on singer Yolanda Rabun's website. Rabun performed with Clay at Clay's pair on North Carolina (Raleigh & Charlotte) concerts on December 21 and 22, 2005.

What's Hot From Spamalot 3/12

Well, that picture above is pretty hot, wouldn't you say?

Are you ready for some hot fan reports? And a hot picture or two? And maybe I can look around and find another item or two because there's always something hot going on at Spamalot!

• Rosie O'Donnell was at Spamalot Tuesday night. According to Rosie's website, she made some really nice comments about Clay in response to questions asked to her on her blog called "Ask Ro", including the following:

  faith writes: Saw you at Spamalot tonite Ro, how’d you like Clay Aiken?
  Rosie's reply: HE WAS REALLY REALLY GREAT !!!!!!!!!
  
  sheri writes: I keep reading that Clay Aiken is not happy in Spamalot. Any truth?
  Rosie's reply: he is very very happy and just wonderful in the role
  
  El writes: Clay Aiken seems like he would be a nice guy in person - was he?
  Rosie's reply: yes

  Here are some pictures of Clay with Rosie:
  
  
  
  

Now for some fan reports, and we have quite a few of them, al wonderful and full of lots of great news and comments about Clay. Note that all reports come from The Clayboard. Thanks to all the fans for taking the time to write out their remembrances and post them for us.

• From Clayngel, here is a really great report:

  Ohhhhh my goodness! Tonight's show was absolutely amazing!
  
  There was a huge crowd there. Bigger than I have seen on any other week night. I was in the front row and could see that the mezzanine and balcony sections were pretty full and there were people in standing room as well. The audience was very enthusiastic and laughed and applauded a lot for everything. The entire cast seemed to be in a really great mood and were having so much fun with their roles.
  
  Brad Oscar (Sir Bedevere) wasn't there tonight, but his replacement was pretty good.
  
  Tonight I took my mom to the show with me and it was her first time ever seeing it. She's not a Clay fan so it was fun seeing her react to everything. She thought the show was hysterical and that Clay fit in really well with the cast and was funny! She also said that when he first appeared on stage it took her second to realize it was him, especially as Brother Maynard. It was really fun and refreshing to see the show with someone who's never been before because it's like experiencing everything for the first time all over again.
  
  I saw it mentioned up-thread about the Knights of Ni. When the lead Knight does the name-change thing he did in fact sing that mentioned selling yourself or something like that and then said "I'm Governor Spitzer and I approved this name change." The whole place lost it! It was hysterical!!! The audience literally couldn't stop laughing. When it started to die down he said "Not too soon, then?" and that just made everyone crack up all over again! The King was speechless he kept trying to say his line, but when he opened his mouth he just started laughing. Clay could not contain his smile and looked like he was trying sooooo hard not to laugh. I have never seen him break character before during this scene, it was just so funny.
  
  Some smaller details that I noticed tonight:
  
  After the "Knights of the Round Table" song when God comes to yell at them, Clay yelled "What's going on?" and then Patsy I think had a little delay getting to his spot, which is next to Robin, so then Clay yelled "Patsy?!" it was really cute.
  
  Right before intermission, after "Run Away" the Knights are all screaming and Sir Robin runs behind Sir Bedevere and tonight Clay screamed, "Wait for me! Wait for me!"
  
  Clay seemed to be having a little trouble keeping his hat on his head tonight during the first scene and "I'm Not Dead Yet." He kept playing with it and adjusting it, but he totally worked it into the scene and it was adorable!
  
  He just seems to be getting better and better. The audience was literally rolling in the aisles during his drunken guard scene. His dancing is so good too! I love seeing him have so much fun on stage.
  
  There was a huge crowd at the stage door tonight! Again, it was so many more people than I have ever seen on a weeknight. A very nice woman let me squeeze in next to her at the front of the barricade, but I was kind of far to the right so I didn't know if he was going to sign all the way down there. He came out followed by 3 guys with cameras who took a couple of pictures of him signing autographs before they thanked him and left, so there may be more media coverage in the works! He was wearing a blue striped shirt, dark jeans and nice looking black sneakers. His hair wasn't slicked back tonight, it had more of the "shaken" look. He's gorgeous! He went down the line and luckily did sign where I was. He stopped a few feet down from me. I had my OFC Tote for him to sign and I told him he did a great job, while he was signing it. He smiled, thanked me and said that I was a familiar face! Ahhhh he actually recognized me. I am still in shock. It's so amazing to have someone you look up to as your hero know who you are. I never even thought he would ever know that I existed! I feel so fortunate and happy tonight. He's just so amazing.

• From d4kkks, another fantastic report:

  What another "Spamalot" getaway!!! I was the first on line at the backstage door last night. Thanks to the kindness of my Claymate friend. Clay came to me right away. He took my playbill. He asked where to sign. I pointed at him the part of insert JN Tie. This gave me the guts to say " You master your roles already". He looked at me smiling so sweetly and said " It's about time". Followed by" you came prepared" talking about my JN Tie nicely insert for him easy to autograph. I am in cloud9 again.
  
  Absolutely, definitely, Clay artistically mastered his Broadway gigs. Never any moment, even he was in the shadow, did he stop acting. As Tower Guard, his attention to coconut (while playing his Helmet tie) than to become a Knights seems so real. As Dead Guard, I like to hug him as being not so brave Sir Robin. I like to hug him again because of his cute dancing routine with Sir Lancelot and Not Dead Fred. Not so brave Sir Robin, soiling his pants is so convincing, when he got scared. I enjoy the "All for one" and "yodeling". I wish he finished it before Sir Galahad interrupted him.
  
  I like the head moves when everyone singing "The find the grail end" act1, Clay did some extra dancing moves. He is so cute in this scene. How can he smile with open mouth and with wide open eyes and still look happy while doing his cute dancing routine before the Piano playing? The "haying" is more powerful with his big voice.
  What a sight, the foot stumping with vengeance looked of his face. The wide spread of his legs, to avoid kneeling of his skirt. While singing the part "Papa can you hear me", the first time I saw him shaking his shoulder. The coconut dancing is so charming (the looks, and his body movement) to watch. These are for me the most memorable scenes tonight.
  
  tidbits;
  
  6:45pm since it's a getaway show, I got the last SRO ticket.
  
  7:45pm While waiting in front of the Theater, I saw a Greyhound Bus unloading more than 25 passengers going to watch the "Spamalot"; I saw a white stretch limousine unloading 10 passengers; I saw another Greyhound Bus unloading more than 50 passengers; when the Bus passed in front of me , I read a "Quebec" sign; More group of Broadway goers coming; Lots of men than women.
  
  7:50pm I went inside the Theater, I was one of the last people who checked in. I saw Jerome inside obviously because he was tall. I was standing in Aisle 1, instead of standing at the other end, so I can see Clay at the Tower scene better.. One of the usher guy recognized me at the stage last Thursday. He was happy for me. I told him it was also my Birthday. Another sold out show. Even the box seats are taken. As the show started, some latecomers were coming. I saw Jerome walked in front of me followed by the Ladies (this gave the sense that these two Ladies were Rosie & company). I never heard any commotion about them until I read in this thread. The mere that Rosie spends time, money? and effort to come to see the show and Clay? Is a good and positive gesture. Clay did not come to them, they come to him. It's just proper to give the hospitality that they deserve.

• GrammyJ gives us this report:

  Raleigh1 called me during intermission. She was there for the opening show, and said she could not believe how Clay has mastered his rolls since then. She said he has added so much to each character that it is hard to put into words how good he is now. Right before the opening scene she could see Clay standing on stage waiting to move to his position in the tower. She will be seeing more shows this week, so it will be interesting to see what she has to say.

• Austenfan talked with some ladies from Finland, and I love what they had to say about the fish:

  Cute part...there were some lovely young ladies standing next to me. It turns out they were from Finland. They said 'Yes, we really do slap each other with fish'. It was so sweet. I heard a group talking as they were leaving the theater. One said 'Clay Aiken was good' with emphasis like they were surprised and impressed. Then another said 'He was VERY good. Then the next person said 'He was REALLY good'. Like they were wowed. I figure if there was a fourth person in the group we would have gotten an 'Astounding'. But hey, it works for me.

  One more Austenfan report:

  The audience was great. The show had an amazing energy. For a week night there was a great crowd and it looked really full. Clay got big laughs on just about every phrase during the tower scene. His timing was spot on. He and Lancelot (Rick Holmes) and the King (Jonathan Hadary) had great timing together. Clay had his boots back on as last show I remember he didn't wear the boots over his pants. I guess when the pants are perfect you want folks to see -em. Clay was really dancing and jumping tonight. There was a great 'bounce' to his step. Makes me think things are going well for him.
  
  There was a standby playing the role of Bevedere and he was really good. Actually I think he got more laughs than the original guy. It infused some new energy into the show. The Knights Who Say Ni did a song about looking for women on the street and Client #9. The audience went wild. And then he said 'This was paid for by Elliot Spitzer and people just lost it The audience wouldn't stop laughing and the King could not get control of himself to do his line. He kept starting his line and breaking up. Clay was laughing a bit but held it together. But the king was doubling over. Finally one of the actors just says 'We were doing Spamalot' and people cracked up even more. Finally they got it together and went on with it. But it was so much fun. People were ecstatic from the joy of it all.
  
  Sometimes when the laughter is that strong the audience can need to recover so it can quiet down the next scenes. But Clay and the other actors just took the great reaction and built on it. Clay's put some 'body english' into his 'musical' theater line and got huge laughs. The audience burst into applause after the first part of 'You Won't Succeed On Broadway'. Again Clay got a laugh on every phrase. He was so animated and every inflection was perfect. And we got a huge, full, all out, couldn't get any better 'raising of the tunic'. What a lovely scene....and I was pretty far from the stage so Clay really 'projected'. Clay's voice on the 'Oy' notes was amazing. He sang so full and rich and strong. Yet he was so funny.
  
  I think after the extended laugh from the Knights of Ni the actors tried to go through the Tower and Guard scenes a little more quickly. Or maybe it was just the high energy. But wow...the audience was rolling on the floor from the Guard scene. The Diva's Lament is focused more on singing so the audience got a bit of a chance to recover there. And Clay has added so many laughs to the Brother Maynard bit. He added this thing where he adjusts his glasses alot as he's reading the book and he gots loads of laughs from that. Very British Clergy....delivery which I think adds so much. He reads the number part with pauses in all the right places and it's working so well. The physical comedy part of that character is just growing by leaps and bounds.
  
  Also Clay's soiling scenes are so funny. The audience is bursting into big applause for them. His reaction is both realistic and broad at the same time if that's possible. His expressions are just priceless. Another cute bit is when Clay dismounts the 'horse' at the French castle and mimes tying up the horse and petting the horse. Sweet. And his 'quail' 'boat' 'dinner cruise comments' got great reactions. Perfect sense of confusion there. There's a kindness to Clay's Sir Robin. The entire audience stood up at the end of the show and they were cheering wildly. Just a great show all around.

• d4kkkks posted this picture which is from kimyie at the Clackhouse. It is of Wednesday night's peasant (love the look on Clay's face!!):
  
  
• MonicaJuliet saw Spamalot for the first time and gives us this report:

  WOW, WOW, WOW!!! Just got settled into our hotel room after seeing Spamalot for the first time. Clay was SO amazing, I was literally grinning for the whole show. I also laughed so hard for the full 2 hours that my stomach muscles are killing me right now! Since it's getting late and we are getting up early again tomorrow, I won't post a full recap till I get back this weekend. But, I must say that Clay can definately dance! His moves are so smooth and he is flawless in all of his roles. He seemed so comfortable on stage. His solo number in the second act is fantastic. He got great applause throughout the show and I'm pretty sure he looked at me a few times! Eeeeee! We got a very big tunic flip tonight! One thing I noticed that may have been different tonight was Clay's piano playing during his solo. I have the soundtrack to Spamalot and the song that Sir Robin plays was a lot different. When Clay sat down he didn't play right away, he looked at the keys for a bit and then started playing chopsticks. I have never read of him playing chopsticks any other night. It got a great laugh though!
  
  The Knights of Ni scenes were hysterical! Tonight their name was made up of some funny noises and then a song. I can't remember the exact words, but it had something to do with, "I pick up girls on 34th and 9. I pick up girls 'cause I'm client number 9". I'm not sure if those are the exact words, but it was all about Elliot Spitzer. The crowd completely lost it! Everyone must have laughed for a good 5 minutes. The Knights of Ni could barely control themselves and Clay was turning around with his back to the audience because he was laughing as well. King Arthur could barely say anything and the Knight of Ni kept opening his mouth to move on, but just laughed instead. Then he said something like, 'We are doing Spamalot now, remember?' which got even more laughs. LOL.
  
  Not too many people at the stage door tonight, about 3 deep, only 2 deep where I was standing. Clay came out pretty quickly in his blue Carolina hoodie, beige coloured track pants and sneakers. Not too many screams or lots of talking and Clay went by pretty quickly. His hair was messy (not slicked back) and he looked great! His eyelashes... I got aa few good pictures and will try to post them soon. Can't wait to see the show again tomorrow!
  
  ETA: There was only one substitution tonight. It was for Brad Oscar who plays Sir Bedevere. Anthony Holds played his role tonight.

Great Stage Door Clip from Spamalot

In case you missed this... Great clip of Clay meeting fans at the stage door from the March 5 show:

Tidbits 3/12

• The Vista Online - Clay Aiken impersonation draws laughter from audience -

  After his performance of McLovin, he came on stage as Clay Aiken singing his song "Invincible" during the "Shadow Date" skit. His cameo appearance as the former American Idol runner-up had the audience rolling with laughter.
  

• NBC 4 - where Sanjaya Malakar has been since being voted off AI a year ago -

  Sanjaya Malakar may not be touring like Clay Aiken or Carrie Underwood, but his cause is a worthy one -- even those who dislike his voice want him to keep singing.

• TV Fodder comments on David Archuleta's mess up on American Idol last night -

  What he needs to do is take a page from Clay Aiken’s Rulebook, only singing songs that show his unique voice, which means slower ballads.

• The Towerlight - very random mention ...

  It wasn't too long until he turned down the Clay Aiken and started telling me about his business of bailing people out of situations like mine.

• Connie Talk - eliminated Idol competitor Danny Noriega sounds like "Clay Aiken, Prince, and Toni Braxton [...] merged into one"-

  Danny Noriega like Clay Aiken, Prince, and Toni Braxton might sound if their voices were merged into one. He shifts pitch pretty effortlessly like Clay, but has husky overtones throughout a la Braxton [...]
  

• Nothing here yet
  

Remembering One of the Clay Nation's Own: clz4clay

clz4clay was a Clay Aiken fan from day 1, so it is with great sorrow and sadness that we inform you clz4clay (Charlene) passed away on Monday morning after a heart attack.

She was instrumental in the Clay nation, organizing the extremely successful Charming 4 Inclusion campaign as well as being an involved member at the Clayboard and Simply Clay.

Charlene, we will miss you for your energy, enthusiasm and above all, dedication to Clay.

On behalf of all CDD visitors, J4Clay and I send our condolences and best wishes to Charlene's family.

What's Hot From Spamalot

After a slow day yesterday, which Mondays normally are, we have some new pictures and fan reviews for you today. So here we go!!!

The following fan reviews come from The Clayboard:

• From Canuck2010 (2 reports from Clayversity):

  QUOTE(stripedshirts @ Mar 11 2008, 06:04 PM)
  Dunno if I'm supposed to post this here as I can't find our Spamalot thread -- but I got a call from our own Claym8 who's at the show & called during Intermission.
  
  Rosie O'Donnell is there tonight. She's seated at one of the box seats at the upper right hand corner near the mezzanine I'm no big Rosie fan, but.....for her to come out & support Clay (despite the flap she caused w/ Ripa a ways back) she gets a thumbs up from me for seeing the show.
  
  QUOTE(demeter @ Mar 11 2008, 06:06 PM)
  Intermission Report from JClay
  
  The show is wonderful. Clay is so perfect for this part. Just loving the whole thing. Laughing so hard she has tears. Loves how he chases the girls around.
  
  With her DH and 2 sons and friends. They are loving it as well. Says Hannah is just perfect for her role as well. Perfectly over the top. Place is packed. Audience slow to respond in beginning but really picked it up.
  
  She saw Jerome come in with two women... a gray haired woman and a dark haired woman. She didn't recognize either one of them. He took them up to a box seat and tucked them safely away and then returned to his position.

• From Zippy888 -

  From stripedshirts @ CV: CLAYM8 WAS TONITE'S PEASANT!!!!!! The reports @ CV say claym8 had seat A101.
  
  Rosie O'Donnell went backstage w/ Jerome
  
  I can't hear Claym8 too well because there is alot of static on my cellphone connection - we just cut off because Clay is at the door now. She must get her pic signed --- anyway, she told me that during the scene for the Knights of Ni, Rick Holmes said something to the effect of "I'm Elliott Spitzer, and I approve this name change....." someone else here who is also reporting in, can correct me, I apologize in advance if I got this part incorrect.
  
  SO cool that Claym8 is the chosen peasant tonight. she kept saying, 'they all sang MY name!'

• From Clayscience:

  from CV: Post Show report from JClay: Show was so much fun and Clay did wonderful. At intermission she heard a guy ask "So which one is Clay?" which she thought was good because it meant he fit in well (someone did let him know).
  
  Said Claym8 did a wonderful job as peasant.
  
  During the Knights of Ni the cast was cracking up. It took them a full 3-4 minutes to go on. The King couldn't pull it together. She said even Clay was cracking up and had to turn his back to the audience.
  
  Not a big flip of the tunic tonight... but big enough. He got huge audience reponse from his big number.
  
  Crowd at the stage door 5-6 deep on the side closest to the door, 3 deep on the other end. Clay in blue jeans, blue striped shirt and no jacket. She said it's cold there.

• Here's an interesting item that Zippy888 at The Clayboard brought over from Butterflyshine at the OFC. This would be a really great thing for the fans to take part in:

  PSA
  Quote: As part of UNICEF's Tap Project -- running Sunday, March 16 through Saturday, March 22 -- restaurants will invite their customers to donate a minimum of $1 for the tap water they would normally get for free. It may not seem like a lot, but for every dollar raised, a child will have clean drinking water for 40 days! You really can make a difference.
  To find participating restaurants in your area, click here: http://www.tapproject.org/cities/new_york_city (the link is for the participating NYC restaurants)(and here is a link to the other participating cities: http://www.tapproject.org/restaurants/info)
  
  I thought I would post this here b/c fan favorite restaurant-Juniors and other resturants are participating...so if you are in NYC to Spamalot pay a $1.00 for a glass of water and a child will have clean drinking water for 40 days...
  
  this post may travel...

Now, here are some great pictures from the Stage Door. The first set is from Ivory Sky and the second set is from Rhonna.

Tidbits 3/11

• Lycos 50 - Clay dropped from #2 last week to #20 this week! That's an 18 place drop! Not sure what happened, but we need to do some major searching!
• The Bubel Aiken Foundation press release announcing the Let's ALL Play grants that were handed out recently -

  The Bubel/Aiken Foundation, co- founded by entertainer Clay Aiken, announced over $500,000 in grants to support programs nationwide as part of the Foundation's Let's ALL Play program.
  
  This is an exciting development in The Bubel/Aiken Foundation's goal to expand Let's ALL Play. The Foundation will support over 30 recreational programs in 2008. Programs receive a program model and Foundation training in addition to grant funding. Because of the Foundation's support, children across the country will participate in inclusive programs for the first time.
  

• NJ.com - David Archuleta looking to be the inevitable "American Idol" winner -

  If, as they've claimed, Clay Aiken had a huge lead in voting every week of season two but the finals (when the phone banks were overwhelmed and Ruben Studdard won in a fluky squeaker), would people who didn't like Clay have kept tuning in for the seemingly inevitable coronation?
  

• LAist - things to do in town -

  IPOD NIGHT
  We hear that Saints and Sinners hold their iPod night tonight. If you think your music library rocks, then plug your iPod into the sound system. Hit shuffle. If the crowd boos, then your iPod gets the boot -- so ditch the Celine and Clay Aiken before you go.

• National Post - a list of people who will "never" get into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame -

  5. Clay Aiken. And Kelly Clarkson. And Paula Abdul. And Randy Jackson. And anyone remotely associated with that nasty British cash cow Simon Cowell.

• Las Vegas Review Journal - "Invisible" a "creepy" song?

  Clay Aiken, "Invisible": The creepiest stalker anthem since The Police's "Every Breath You Take," this is the sound of restraining orders being drawn up. "If I was invisible, I could just watch you in your room," Aiken sings outside your bedroom window, fogging up the glass.
  
  Yikes. If you see this guy on your front lawn, turn on the sprinklers already.

• All Things Clay Aiken - TBAF provides over $500,000 of funding to programs across the nation
• Anew and Afresh - The Bubel Aiken Foundation making a difference with new grants
  

Tidbits 3/10

• E! Online - Broadway "an opportunity to really stretch" -

  But Lopez probably isn't doing this for the money anyway. Julia Roberts, Clay Aiken, Jennifer Garner and Ashlee Simpson have all hit the boards recently, too, and, with the exception of Clay, who probably gets paid in flat irons and apricot scrub, they all probably took pay cuts. In exchange, they got to bask in the challenge of eight shows a week and an audience that changes every day.

• TMJ Milwaukee - USA Today to publish special American Idol issue -

  The USA Today special edition on "American Idol" reviews the top 10 Idol performances over the past six seasons and gives a detailed "Where are they now." Jordin Sparks answers questions from USA Today; we examine the transformation of Clay Aiken from geek chic to Spamalot; talk about how Carrie Underwood went from country girl to red-carpet glamazon; and look at all the Idols on Broadway, from Ruben in "Ain't Misbehavin'" to Frenchie in "Rent."

• USA Today press release (exact same text as above) - official announcement for a special AI edition. The issue is available today through May 15 at newsstands nationwide -
  
• Pegasus News - Dallas fans FedEx Clay in New York City?

  Remember the Clay Aiken flap? As we left our Friday night show there was an overflowing trash bin with a FedEx to Clay (who appears next door in Spamalot) from a Dallas fan. If it hadn't been pouring rain I would have snapped a photo.

• Los Angeles Times - American Idol 7 may be on of Idol's "best seasons"-

  The scores for each contestant are, of course, subjective. However, coming from very different perspectives (Shiraki is a Clay Aiken loyalist; I carry the banner of Katherine McPhee), we attempted to reach a consensus.

• Nothing here today
  

What's Hot From Spamalot 3/9

Today we have a few fan reviews and Stage Door pictures for you. These reviews and pics are the next best thing to actually being there.

All fan reviews came from The Clayboard.

• From Canuck2010 at CV via Zippy888:

  waterbaby at CH posted a recap from last night: Probably everyone has said everything about last night (Saturday), so I'll be brief. Fantabulous!!! The best of all three nights for me, everybody was so on and the energy was so up! The special things I would comment on that were even better than fantabulous were:
  
  1) When David Hibbard's music began to start for "Bright Side of Life," the audience recognized the song and started clapping before he even started singing, and this seemed to inspire him to just go completely all out and pretty much bring the sunniest sun possible into every dancing step and phrase - so delightful!
  
  2) The second thing that was real notable for me was that Clay's solo was the best I'd ever seen it, spot on, dramatic, with extra flourishes, just absolutely wonderful and a show stopper. One new thing in it I will have trouble describing. It was right after he gets up from the piano and is about to begin his stomping, when he's getting ready to do the ferocious (spelling?) stomping. He kind of did a very humorous flourish with his mouth, shaped a little like the neighing of a horse but a sound that I can't describe - it gave a funny dramatic highlight to his transformation from shyer Robin to the mighty stomping of the bottle dance, and he did it right before he did the shoulder thing to begin the first stomp. Seems like generally Clay is adding those little dramatic things that I see many of the other actors do in their bits too.
  
  Didn't think Clay would come to stage door, as it was 10 degrees colder than Friday night, but he did, with hair slicked straight back (wet?), looking nice. Little don't care about autograph me had been left with an incompleted task after getting Tom Decker and Rick Holmes' signatures on my Playbill Thursday night, so I stuck mine out from the back and completed the trio (0k, now what do I do with it? lol).
  
  I may have to write later about New York, but I changed from having the stereotype of it to not only feeling very much happy, happy, happy here and "at home," to definitely wanting to find a way to live and work here for one school year (still need to float rivers during the summer, but I could rent out my Oregon house during the school year). One lady I chatted with at breakfast at Zabar's put it perfectly for me, she said New York is really just a village with tall buildings. I found the people incredibly interesting, witty, intelligent, caring, and wonderful. I highly recommend those who are staying more than one night to hotel it in another neighborhood; Times Square theater district is fun-crazy, but it's nice to "come home" to a residential neighborhood, and I adored the 77th & Broadway area (also, inexpensive, great food, etc).

• From Bulldog:

  aesbeal called after this afternoons matinee!! She said it was awesome!!! even better than last night!!! Shes contemplating on going again tonight!!! I told her to go for it!!! My gosh she kept saying over and over again how he just keeps adding more to his dancing and the way he interacts with the others on stage..were priceless! especially the woman during the knights of the round table..running after them..and copying their moves..well thats it for now if she ends up going tonight and calling me I will post again. oh and she said he was gorgeous with his hair slicked back with his Carolina hoodie at the backstage door..she got some good pictures she said!!!

• From Okclayhoman - Frin at the OFC posted by Butterflyshine:

  BJ on the phone, they(she and Lisa/tugger) did SRO....
  
  Lisa gave BJ her old film camera and makes you know film camera noise, she turned to Lisa and said your camera is really noisy...Clay rolled his eyes...when he did that...Lisa said "are you rolling your eyes at me? and Clay said: no, i am rolling my eyes at her and point at BJ...she is all fangirly....
  
  Performance was awesome, thinks yesterday afternoon was her favorite...tonight was good, really good, but yesterday was his favorite...
  
  Knights who sang Ni did the milkshake rap and then at the end said, I am Hilary Clinton and this message has my approval...
  
  Stage door attire....dark jeans and really cool sneakers, brown suede with orangy/red...he had on white shirt with faint plaid pattern and red/orangy sweater, and puffy coat....he looked verrrrry nice....tails of shirt untucked....
  
  she is eeeeing over the eye roll
  
  Lizzie from the PAT got her meet n greet picture signed....

• From LuvTacos:

  (dancermom2 @ Mar 9 2008, 06:00 PM) Geekette from the CH just called....she said that her sister was the chosen peasant tonight. She is very happy!! She said the stage door was very crowded...about 100-120 people and they couldn't get close. She couldn't even tell me what he was wearing because all they could see was the top of Clay's head. (priorities woman!!!!) Hair sounds like it was like it was last night....slightly wet and combed back.

• From Vox Angelicus (this is a great first-timer review!):

  I just got back to Chicagoland from The Big Apple and now that I'm back home, I can give my recap from yesterday's evening performance. I'm still on Cloud Nine from last night! My husband had given me Spamalot tickets for March 8th as a Christmas present, since this weekend was a time when I could travel without having to worry about job-related demands hanging over my head for Monday. The trip also coincided with a job-related conference that my husband is attending in NYC, so the timing worked out just perfectly for both of us. Our tickets were in row B, seats 107 and 108. I took seat B107 and was in the exact center of the theater, and unbelievably close to the stage. This is the closest I've ever been to the stage for one of Clay's shows, and it was the one-and-only time that I'd get to see Clay in Spamalot, so I was thrilled to be so close to the front of the theater.
  
  The show was so much fun, and it seemed to just fly by! After reading all of the recaps, now with my own eyes I finally got to see all the things that had been reported---Clay's humorous facial expressions; the cute way he grabs his bottom when he "soils himself;" his slow-motion riding (during which he looks like he's on quite an arduous journey); the way he dismounts from his imaginary horse, ties it up and pets it; the hula; the yodeling; and the bottle dance….
  
  Ohmigosh, the bottle dance! Last night Clay gave a rather demure flip of his tunic when he sat down at the piano. But when he stood up and did his "Tevye" moves----WOW!!! He totally commanded the stage! And when he did the bottle dance, on his knees, moving slowly forward with the other dancers, he had a look of ferocious intensity on his face that was really amazing to see. I was utterly enthralled!
  
  There were other little things that I noticed about his performance that I thought were endearing---such as the way he "fluttered" his cheeks at one point. (I don't know how else to describe it), or the way he pretended to be in suspense when the "peasant of the evening" (it was B101 last night) was told "It's only a nomination; we have to wait for the opening of the envelope," heehee.
  
  Since this was my only time to see Spamalot, I have to admit that I mostly watched Clay and paid less attention to some of the other performers when Clay was onstage. But this is an excellent ensemble cast and I enjoyed the entire show. I particularly enjoyed the characters of Patsy and the French Taunter. And I also agree with everyone's raves about Hannah Waddingham and Tom Deckman; they were terrific!
  
  The show went by much much too quickly. My husband likes Clay, but not as much as I do, so after the show I asked him if he'd enjoyed it. He said that he had, and commented that it was funnier than the movie (Monty Python and the Holy Grail; we both used to watch Monty Python on PBS back in the 70s when we were young marrieds). He also said that it was too bad we hadn't flown in on Friday, because then we could have seen both the matinee and the evening shows. Now that's what I like to hear!
  
  But for me, the most magical part of the evening came after the show. Thanks to all of the wonderful reporters here on the Board, I knew to move quickly out the door to the right of the stage after the curtain call. There was a good-sized crowd, and I was in the third row from the front. But there was a gap between two women's heads, and I hoped against hope that maybe I'd be able to pass my playbill to Clay for his autograph.
  
  And then, OMG, it happened! I saw Jerome, so I knew that Clay was coming out to sign autographs. I was near the start of the line, and I wasn't sure I'd be able to get my playbill signed, but then lo and behold! There was Clay, in his powder-blue Carolina hoodie, taking my playbill from my hand, signing it, and handing it back to me before continuing down the line. I've never had a Meet and Greet so this was a surreal moment for me. It was like one of those moments in the movies, when something actually happens in a flash, and yet it also seems to happen in slow motion and to last for an eternity. That's what it felt like for me, when Clay took my playbill and I realized that he was actually signing it for me! I did remember to say "Thank you, Clay" but was otherwise dumbstruck and in the Aiken Fog for sure! For example, I did notice Hannah walking out the door and away from the crowd, but I didn't notice that she gave Clay's bottom a playful caress. I also have read some of the reports about some sort of disturbance among last night's group at the stage door, but if there was any such disturbance, I didn't notice it. The crowd seemed respectful and Clay appeared happy, at least as far as I could tell.
  
  I probably floated back to our hotel with a gigantic dopey grin on my face for the rest of last night. When my hubby and I were on the elevator going up to our room, there was a cute young woman on the elevator with us, making a phone call to her mom that I couldn't help but overhear because she was excited and happy. She told her mom that she'd gotten Clay's autograph, and I knew just how she felt because I was still giddy with the excitement of it all.
  
  This was only my second visit ever to NYC and my first time seeing a musical on Broadway, and I know I'll never forget it! I thanked my husband repeatedly for making it all possible, and I plan to frame my autographed playbill so that I can preserve those memories. I just know that whenever I'll look at that playbill in the future, I'm going to have the same huge, happy smile on my face as I did last night.
  
  In closing, all I can say is that Clay was born to command the stage, and I feel so, SO very lucky to have been able to see him in this show.

• What a lot of great Spamalot reviews! And now we've got some Stage Door photos for your viewing pleasure: