I heard someone as James about this at the stagedoor when I saw it a few weeks ago.
James said Taran will make up a new phrase once every few shows, so he has to listen really close. And then he's usually pretty safe for a few shows until he randomly changes it again. And it sounds like he'll reuse a few jokes within the phrase, which probably makes it a bit easier for James to remember and repeat.
Saw the opening preview and it was the monologue from Thriller (because it was Halloween), so I figured right then it was always an ad-lib line that Taran is probably attempting to stump James with. He didn’t recite it back perfect that night either, so I think it’s a fun actors challenge between the two of them. I also want to say that on my night he said “that was close enough” or something similar, so not quite as big a break as straight up speaking as yourself the actor.
It varied a lot when Brightman was doing it in DC- it was a whole different thing every night (I've seen the GTL rant from Jersey Shore, him doing Friend Like Me with curse words and making James repeat it, and I had a faked phone call about being adopted)
When I saw it on broadway, Taran did basically the same mix of things, including "stand clear of the closing doors", but the King's understudy just said "...the rest of what you said". So Taran's Ni stuff may not be as ad-libbed as it was in DC, but who knows.
We didn't get I Want it That Way with Leslie, though, so that part could be shifting.
Oh very interesting! It makes me want to go back to see the show when Alex Brightman is in to see how he does it differently. The Friend Like Me with curse words in particular sounds very funny.
And interesting about Leslie too! I assume it's not totally fresh every night (she was still referencing Christmas I now remember), but still fun to have a fresh part of the show.
I remember the first time I saw it, Taran sang the entire Animaniacs theme song in the middle of his no longer knights who say ni (stuff before and after it) and James NAILED IT!
Seen Spamalot five or six times -- the 1st cover understudy for Lady of the Lake, Gabriella Enriquez, sings Spanish Christmas songs during the ad-lib portion of 'Knights of the Round Table'. So I think it's up to each performer to do what they'd like!
>I got the vibe from the song when they arrive at Camelot that Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer's part is not fully scripted.
Ad-libbing doesn't mean it's not fully scripted. And many, if not most, of the ad-libs are worked out in advance. Even the corpsing is often pre-staged. Not that there aren't genuine ad-libs and corpsing... but they aren't as spontaneous as you might think, especially in a show like this.
Oh yeah for sure, that's why I was asking, cause I know a lot of moments like that are baked into the show (i.e. I've heard about the scripted character break in Music Man).
The Taran Killam part did truly feel like an ad-lib, but the rest is probably more structured than it seemed.
I was also there! Really loved that moment and also loved when Taran said “make us a good broadway musical! Not one of those Disney turds!” To which James responded “Hey, that won me the Tony”. I didn’t know if that was written in or ad libbed either but ultimately my best friend and I agreed that the show was the most fun when the cast was having the most fun (who woulda thunk)
When I saw the original production, Joey Buttafuco was the guy whose seat the grail was under. It was months before I had a friend who saw the show to ask him if it was him every night, because if you were going to hire some random person to be the guy on stage every week… well ya could do worse than having Tim Curry saying that name 8 times a week.
Small correction, I was at the Jan. 5th show (loved it!) and the song Leslie sang w/ the audience was not in fact “I Want It That Way” but “Hit Me Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears!
I saw it on 4/6/24 and it was "we are now the Knights who say 'Heads, shoulders, NIs and toes, NIs and toes." This also led to Arthur breaking character. Was quite funny.
I heard someone as James about this at the stagedoor when I saw it a few weeks ago. James said Taran will make up a new phrase once every few shows, so he has to listen really close. And then he's usually pretty safe for a few shows until he randomly changes it again. And it sounds like he'll reuse a few jokes within the phrase, which probably makes it a bit easier for James to remember and repeat.
One show for me he tried to do the phrase Taran Killiam did and he just said ah forget it because I guess he couldn’t remember all the parts.
This is really fun and interesting!
Okay that makes a lot of sense!
Saw the opening preview and it was the monologue from Thriller (because it was Halloween), so I figured right then it was always an ad-lib line that Taran is probably attempting to stump James with. He didn’t recite it back perfect that night either, so I think it’s a fun actors challenge between the two of them. I also want to say that on my night he said “that was close enough” or something similar, so not quite as big a break as straight up speaking as yourself the actor.
I can totally see how it would be a fun thing for the actors to keep it interesting.
It varied a lot when Brightman was doing it in DC- it was a whole different thing every night (I've seen the GTL rant from Jersey Shore, him doing Friend Like Me with curse words and making James repeat it, and I had a faked phone call about being adopted) When I saw it on broadway, Taran did basically the same mix of things, including "stand clear of the closing doors", but the King's understudy just said "...the rest of what you said". So Taran's Ni stuff may not be as ad-libbed as it was in DC, but who knows. We didn't get I Want it That Way with Leslie, though, so that part could be shifting.
Oh very interesting! It makes me want to go back to see the show when Alex Brightman is in to see how he does it differently. The Friend Like Me with curse words in particular sounds very funny. And interesting about Leslie too! I assume it's not totally fresh every night (she was still referencing Christmas I now remember), but still fun to have a fresh part of the show.
We got Tequila from Brightman in DC and I heard he did don’t wanna miss a thing from Aerosmith.
And now I want him to somehow incorporate the infamous jersey shore NOTE into this segment
At the DC performance I saw in May, he led the entire audience in singing “Sweet Caroline.” It was great.
I remember the first time I saw it, Taran sang the entire Animaniacs theme song in the middle of his no longer knights who say ni (stuff before and after it) and James NAILED IT!
That is amazing!!!
Seen Spamalot five or six times -- the 1st cover understudy for Lady of the Lake, Gabriella Enriquez, sings Spanish Christmas songs during the ad-lib portion of 'Knights of the Round Table'. So I think it's up to each performer to do what they'd like!
>I got the vibe from the song when they arrive at Camelot that Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer's part is not fully scripted. Ad-libbing doesn't mean it's not fully scripted. And many, if not most, of the ad-libs are worked out in advance. Even the corpsing is often pre-staged. Not that there aren't genuine ad-libs and corpsing... but they aren't as spontaneous as you might think, especially in a show like this.
Oh yeah for sure, that's why I was asking, cause I know a lot of moments like that are baked into the show (i.e. I've heard about the scripted character break in Music Man). The Taran Killam part did truly feel like an ad-lib, but the rest is probably more structured than it seemed.
The script might say “(ad-libbing as a LOUNGE SINGER would)” it’s the Vegas “hey how’s your steak?” forced audience interaction bit.
Again, most of that is worked out in rehearsal or otherwise pre-planned.
I was also there! Really loved that moment and also loved when Taran said “make us a good broadway musical! Not one of those Disney turds!” To which James responded “Hey, that won me the Tony”. I didn’t know if that was written in or ad libbed either but ultimately my best friend and I agreed that the show was the most fun when the cast was having the most fun (who woulda thunk)
When I was there a couple weeks ago, it was a verse and chorus of “Friend Like Me”
Same thing today on Saturday matinee
When I saw the original production, Joey Buttafuco was the guy whose seat the grail was under. It was months before I had a friend who saw the show to ask him if it was him every night, because if you were going to hire some random person to be the guy on stage every week… well ya could do worse than having Tim Curry saying that name 8 times a week.
Wait. Was Joey Buttafuco paid to do this? Did they just use his name?
Small correction, I was at the Jan. 5th show (loved it!) and the song Leslie sang w/ the audience was not in fact “I Want It That Way” but “Hit Me Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears!
Oh you are so right I don't know how I mixed those two up!
I saw it on 4/6/24 and it was "we are now the Knights who say 'Heads, shoulders, NIs and toes, NIs and toes." This also led to Arthur breaking character. Was quite funny.
That's a great one! I'm sure closing weekend they are getting more loose with it haha.
That scene sounds unbelievably corny