March 27 and 28, 2008

Okay...taking a stab, (without a sword as flashy as Excalibur to assist me), at a recap of my Spamalot adventure this past weekend. I ended up seeing three shows (yeah well, you know how that ends up happening...it's Clay)!

You all know the show by now. Play-by-play reports have been given well and capably by others with wonderful memories who are far better at that than I. For I really am still quite blinded, befuddled and bewitched by the BRILLIANCE that is Clay Aiken as Brave Brave Sir Robin. He is indeed just that...BRILLIANT. HE SHINES! Something radiates from within him on the Broadway stage that cannot be captured by my fingers and this mere keyboard and computer screen. He is moving JOY...with the comedic timing of any pro and a face that harbors expressions that can send you into gales of laughter without him even opening his mouth. As the saying goes "Dying is easy, comedy is hard." Obviously not to our Mr. Aiken. He has taken to it like a duck to water. And if you are there, you are swimming along with him. It was somewhat amazing to me as well that up there on the stage wasn't my Clay, our Clay, at all. As I gazed at that face I know so very well, I only saw Sir Robin. So totally Sir Robin. From my interesting vantage point on Saturday night, far right orchestra row D, I could glimpse into the left side backstage. At one point, when Clay was set to enter from that side, I watched him approaching from backstage and well before breaking onto the stage, he was already in character. Sir Robin was on his face. That never changed, even when he stood right in front of me for the last big number and looked down into the audience. The tiniest glimmer in his eyes could have told me he was seeing his fans below him, but then, maybe it Mamarose's very emotional imagination. He was Sir Robin! Of course, as I sat in that most unlikely place (for me), in a gorgeous theatre on Broadway in NEW YORK CITY, I was struck even more than I usually am by the passing of our time, our five years as Clay's fan family. Seeing him on that stage, it was hard not to let my mind wander back to where we began, the road we have traveled since and how amazing it is that it has led us here, to this place and time. As King Arthur says: "Who Knew!"

Pride does not begin to describe how I feel about his accomplishments.

His joy is palpable. He is in his element. Has he found his grail? I don't know. But I know I have mine.