There Was A Man: All Good Things Come To An End

Photo Montage by fountaindawg

On January 4th Clay Aiken played his last performance playing Sir Robin after 123 performances in his first run and 110.5 in his second run. The Shubert Theatre full of love from cast, crew, and fans alike. Alas, the end of the Spamalot Broadway era is coming to an end for good. January 11th the lights will dim for Spamalot for the last time. I wouldn't be surprised at a revival of this wonderful show somewhere down the line.

From the boards:

I have to mention the huge applause that greeted ALL the cast members when they first appeared on stage. It was amazing and they were eating it up. When Tom came on to start the introduction, the applause was deafening and it was hysterical. He waved at the audience, which made everyone crack up. When the LOTL walked out to do here "Diva's Lament", she was again greeted with applause and she said "Thank you", in a funny way, and which she has never said before, and we all cracked up agaiin. It just continued like that all evening and was a big hoot.

The overture started. Tom/historian got such a loud applause when he entered. It was hillarious. The show felt like family tonight. It was very different from how it felt on Friday where it was more NJU and not even people familiar with the play Spamalot. Today it felt like people saying inside jokes to one another...only they weren't inside jokes...they were the jokes in the play itself and we all knew them...and we were relishing them. It's so hard to explain. Everybody when they came out got huge applause. It was love given to the whole cast. But Tom got so bemused with the applause that was so loud and wouldn't stop.
Clay? What can I say. There was love in that theater tonight. When his cute head popped out of that tower he got the loving...the applause was pretty dang loud. I don't know if there was anything "special" so much as the cast was loose and doing practical jokes on Clay...like not pulling him back to stop him yodeling on All For One. He got thunderous applause for Idol of my age...and it was the first time for the Redux that I couldn't hear the next lines...and the golden larynx line at all.

Oh our Dear Robin!!! Huge standing O at the end. We did show him the love and he did smile as he stood there with damp messy wonderful Clay hair.

The house lights dimmed... a warning about cell phones was given (yeah, right!)... the trumpet player was ‘shot’ which elicited a somewhat nervous laugh from the audience. We all knew that this was going to be special... little did we know HOW special!

The Historian walked out on stage and the applause erupted... he let us ‘get it out of our systems’ for a bit (yeah, right!) and then motioned us to silence. The curtain was raised and David received enthusiastic applause to show him our appreciation. We heard the clip clop signifying the arrival of King Arthur who was showered in applause as well. We held our collective breath as we knew that Clay’s appearance in the tower was imminent... and then... there he was... The theatre exploded with our applause... we were allowed but a few seconds of it and the show went on. When Rick appeared, the same love shown David was bestowed upon him.

When Bradley declared that he is a man... we showed him our love... and when Merle emerged from the ‘lake’ she was greeted by our enthusiastic applause as well.

Then came the ‘introduction’ of the knights... when Sir Robin joined the line-up of knights... the applause simply would not die down... so he shrugged, walked back into the wings and reappeared a few seconds later, to our obvious delight... The Historian acknowledged that we were certainly all aware of Sir Robin’s prowess but felt he should deliver the line anyways... While all this was going on, poor Patsy could not contain his guffaws!!! When Clay hit the high note of the yodeling, Lancelot and Galahad left him hanging and did not pull him back which resulted in Clay holding that note for a good long time until he backed up of his own volition once he realized that they were not going to pull him back!

And then the magic of YWSOB happened... Clay was simply magnificent... Put new little twists and intonations here and there even then, his last show!!!!! After shushing us, he walked to the piano, gingerly sat down, making very sure that the lift of his tabard did not reveal anything of his backside... he waited for the unavoidable AWWWWWWWWWWWWWs, turned around and gave us a ‘Gotcha’ look... priceless!!!! When he finished his number, four or five brave souls in the audience stood up and within seconds, Clay had a full standing ovation that went on and on and on.... The King and Patsy both had these goofy grins on and looked on Clay with this almost paternal pride... Clay in the meantime was making coocoo gestures to show the King that we are crazy... Yes Clay, we ARE crazy... crazy about you!!!!

By the time final curtain call started, the entire audience was standing, so the girls from the ensemble came out on stage to find us on our feet, letting them know that they too have been embraced by Clay’s fans... When the guys came out, a few of them had surprised looks on their faces but they hammed it up and soaked it up... Every character cast member received proof of our appreciation for an outstanding run on Broadway... When the LOTL came out, she took her bow and motioned us: “Just a minute!” and... then Clay appeared without his wig... No longer Brave Sir Robin, but our dear Clay... as much as the Shubert may have erupted before... now we simply blew the roof off!!!! Clay ever gracious... refused to let us go on and started the ALOTBSOL... At the end, he reached into the orchestra pit and shook the conductor’s hand – he is one class act!!!!

Yes, I think a good time was had by all.

So now, Broadway is at an end for now. Until we meet again.