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# 65: "Clay Aiken's Not Just Any Joe"


ldyjocelyn

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Another picture from the TV interview to be on this evening:

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Calling all Claymates! Tune in to 207 tonight for Kathleen's interview with Clay Aiken, who's in Maine performing at Ogunquit Playhouse.

ETA:

The interview is up already! http://www.wcsh6.com/rss/article/253462/50/Clay-Aiken-performing-at-Ogunquit-Playhouse?utm_source=207&utm_medium=twitter

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Gah, he's so cute! And I love the little bit at the end:

interviewer: "Is there anything else you want people to know about you?"

Clay: "Is there anything they HAVEN'T already dug up about me?"

Love it.

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I haven't done a recap of my shows from last week and since others have been pretty complete I'll just add some thoughts. I attended the four eveing shows Tuesday through Friday.

It did seem that Clay certainly felt better by Thursday. When we saw him on Tuesday he did CED lying on the floor pretty much the whole time. By Thursday he was able to finish on his knees. I'm not sure about Friday since my view was blocked by one of the children.

When Clay was taken to Egypt by the Ishmalites ((sp?) which by the way was one of the women, with the heavy pulling being done by Matthew who plays Pharoah). I believe Joseph was originally dragged across the whole stage on his back before his injury.. When we saw him he was being dragged/pulled stumbling but mostly leaning on Matthew's back. By the 3d time we saw it he went down on the floor about 3/4 of the way across the stage--we did see a little skin at that point :whistling: .

I thought the white outfit worked pretty well throughout the play, although he did do a lot of tugging on his shirt to pull it down. I heard somewhere that not only did he have knee guards but also some kind of back brace. When he came out on the chariot with the gold head dress and belted cape I thought it looked a little odd--I preferred the crown, capelet and cuffs he wore when he first became Pharoah's no. 2 (no. 2 again :bleh: ) The belted cape just didn't seem to fit too well and I thought the cape could have been fuller.

One of the touching parts for me was when he first came out and sang Any Dream to the children. I know snarkystripes said something about wishing he had gotten down to the children's level, but I'm not quite sure what she meant. It seemed to me that in every show he made eye contact and smiled sweetly at each child on the stage. His eyes just glistened with love looking at them. When he hesitated at the end of the song he was looking out at the audience and I thought it was to show he was caught up in thinking where the story would bring him-- a dramatic pause, which I thought worked. I'm not explaining it well, hopefully someone else can do it better.

Seeing Clay's face when he sees Jacob at the end is heartrending. I had good seats for all 4 shows, but I was disappointed that I didn't get to see that again in my last show since I was over on the left and Jacob totally blocked my view. I also loved Clay's interaction with Keala particularly a the end of each act. You can see the love and respect they have for each other. I also got a kick out of Keala's cheerleading efforts at the end of Canaan days to get more applause for the brothers though really she didn't have to do it in the last 3 shows I saw. The audience gave them a great ovation and of course the brothers, particularly Ruben, milked it for all their worth--but they deserved it.

Needless to say I loved the show. There was no weak link in the entire cast. I thought the children were great. It took a couple of shows for me to realize that only some of the children were miked, but they sounded very nice. The brothers were amazing. I don't know how they managed to do what they did on such a small stage. Their dancing was great as was their harmonies.

I enjoyed the megamix a lot, I don't understand one of the early reveiwers who didn't think it was necessary and clearly didn't care for it. I also suspect he didn't know that this is the way the show has always been done. I liked the way the participants left the stage. I can't remember the exact order, but when Clay leaves the stage after the other principles he has the brothers holding on to his cape (which is huge in the last scene) and he's pulling them with his hands gripping his cape off stage, the girls follow, clapping in rhythm and waving. The last couple of shows it seemed as though the whole theater was bouncing in rhythm to the clapping. It's hard to not feel energized and uplifted when you leave the show.

My sort of NJU story involves my cousin who went to Maine with us. She has been to a few concerts with me over the years and saw Spamalot. She enjoys Clay's voice but doesn't have any interest in seeing him (or for the most part anyone) more than once in a tour or play. Claire is from Brooklyn and has been a lover of Broadway since she was a teenager, so she's seen a lot of shows. Phantom is her favorite and I think over the years she may have seen it a couple of times. When she expressed interest in going to Maine she asked me to get a ticket for her for one show--Wed. night --so she didn't go our first night there. When the show was over she was saying how much she loved it--she had no idea what the show was like before attending. Long story short she ended up going to the next two shows with us. In the car I played my Broadway cd of the show with Michael Damian and then the one we have from the vault and she thought there was no comparison--in every way this production sounded better. She admitted that she never thought she would go to a show 3 nights in a row. To be honest her decision wasn't based entirely on Clay, although she said what a great voice he has. One of the things she's always liked about him is the emotion he displays when singing. She's always been an Elvis fan so she really got a kick out of that part of the show. She was very impressed with the whole production and thought it was great fun.

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What a great interview! Best one in recent memory. I'm all packed and ready to hit the road this afternoon. I am heading to Maine with my daughter aka crimsonice, FromClaygary from CV, and a NJU friend who I usually attend skating competitions with. She loved Clay on AI2, went to the Jukebox Tour in Toronto, and she always asks me about him and how he's doing when I see her, but I was quite surprised when she expressed interest in joining us for the trek to Joseph. Turns out she saw the play twice when it was in Toronto with Donny Osmond in the lead role, and she has always wanted to see Maine. I was at a regional skating competition on the weekend with her, and she was just about squeeeing about seeing Clay from so close. When I mentioned stage door, she was in awe that she might actually get to "meet" him and get an autograph. So this should be fun. :) We have tickets for both shows tomorrow.

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I wondered that too. But...

That just goes to show that he's got things he's working on that we have no CLUE about. And it's certainly his right to NOT tell us about those unnamed projects.

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I really don't get all the angst when he mentions a schedule conflict. I have lots of schedule conflicts, none of which are related to my career. I have a personal life, as I assume Clay does also.

3 hours until I leave for Maine!!!!!

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Everybody going this week (including today and tonight) -- have so much fun!

I'm going to go over to the corner and sob right now...

[/jk]

Kinda..

ETA from CV:

Looks like special guests at Joseph today.

@MatthewRagas: Good morning!!! I think I'm going to be performing for former president Bush today.

Wonder which one?

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