Clint Holmes’ swan song at Harrah’s is ‘bittersweet’

Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2006 | 7:34 a.m.

It rained the day Clint Holmes began moving his possessions out of his dressing room at Harrah's - paintings, pictures and other memorabilia collected over the past 6 1/2 years.

Some of the things were destined for his home, some for storage.

"I didn't know what I was going to feel that night," Holmes said, speaking of his final performance at Harrah's a few days earlier.

With the intoxicating night behind him - a great performance, many standing ovations, departing gifts from the hotel and from some of Harrah's employees who marched down the aisle to express their love and appreciation - Holmes reflected.

"Bittersweet. It was bittersweet."

There was the sadness of the final curtain, but the happiness of moving forward to something that may be even more exciting.

"It's like the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one, as opposed to the end of the book," he said.

The new chapter is a musical, "Jam," that he hopes is destined for Broadway. He and Bill Fayne, his musical director and friend of more than three decades, wrote the play over the past two years.

"I'm growing," Holmes said. "For me, at this point in my career, I want to do theater. That's what it's about for me, not to continue doing just what I've been doing all these years."

"Jam," which is being produced by Tom Quinn and directed by Larry Moss, is semiautobiographical. "It's based on a true story," Holmes said. "There are elements of my life in it."

He said the musical with its 20 original songs takes place as a nightclub act. "It's as if you came to a nightclub, and the show broke out into a play. People in my life suddenly appear in different ways."

Now that his show has closed at Harrah's he can focus more on "Jam," getting it ready for its start in workshops with the set and lighting designer. After that, the production will go to a regional theater, perhaps in Albuquerque or Minneapolis, maybe even England.

"A lot of London productions start out in Manchester or Oxford first," said Holmes, who was born in England to an opera-singing English mother and a jazz-singing American father.

He said he would like to open in London by early spring at the latest.

"It's a long process," Holmes said.

He would like the show to run for six months to a year in London before bringing it to the United States. If it hits pay dirt in London, he would leave a company there and bring another company to Broadway.

"Anyway, that's kind of the plan in my mind," he said.

Holmes said he won't abandon Las Vegas. He still has offers to perform here, which he will do when it doesn't conflict with his other schedule.

"Harrah's has asked me to stay in the family, and a couple of other places have expressed an interest in me," he said. "Vegas is my home."