Thursday, May 31, 2007 | 7:23 a.m.
Who: "Just Another Man , " starring Clint Holmes
Ensemble - Karole Foreman, Celeste Lero and Regie Brown
When: Preview performances at 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday , and 8 p.m. June 6. Regular performances are 8 p.m. June 8-9, June 13-16, June 20-22, June 24 and 2 p.m. July 9, 16-17, 23-24.
Where: UNLV's Judy Bayley Theatre
Tickets: $20 to $35; 895-2787
THE CAST
Larry Moss, director
Ray Coles - Clint Holmes
Audrey Coles (Ray's mother) - Tina Walsh, formerly of "Mamma Mia!"
Eddie Coles (Ray's father) - Earl Turner, former Las Vegas and New Orleans headliner
Roz - Reva Rice, from the Las Vegas production of "Spamalot"
Taylor Coles (Ray's son) - Tezz Yancey
Lorraine Coles (Ray's sister) - Gayle Steele, Holmes' real - life sister
Jeremy Simon - Bill Fayne, Holmes' musical director
Samantha - Kyla Grogan, former local TV reporter
Clint Holmes settles down to talk about his autobiographical musical "Just Another Man."
He sees a two-year journey to Broadway, a path that starts Friday with a monthlong run at UNLV's Judy Bayley Theatre.
Holmes clearly remembers the play's birth date:
Oct. 3, 2003.
It's hard for a Las Vegas entertainer to forget the date that Roy Horn was mauled by a tiger during a "Siegfried & Roy" performance.
Across town, Holmes was meeting with producer Tom Quinn and noted director Larry Moss.
"That's the night I met Larry. He came to the show," Holmes recalls. "We went to dinner after and in the middle of dinner I got a call from another friend telling me what had happened to Roy. I left the dinner and went to the hospital. I'll never forget that night."
But out of that interrupted dinner meeting, a play was born.
Or is being born. It's still being written by Holmes, Moss and Bill Fayne, Holmes' longtime friend, collaborator and musical director.
Moss was intrigued by Holmes' story.
He is the son of a black jazz singer from Buffalo, N.Y., and a white opera singer from England. He inherited his vocal skills and talent from both .
He worked his way out of the lounges to become a Vegas headliner, arriving at the Golden Nugget in 1999 and moving to Harrah's, where he performed until October.
Moss also was captivated by the gladiator spirit of entertainers.
Moss' "parents brought him to Vegas at the age of 10, and he saw Nat King Cole," Holmes says. "He came back and he saw Judy Garland. He saw Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.
"Through the years he fell in love with what he calls 'The Gladiators,' the entertainers who walk out on stage night after night and win."
Moss saw the gladiator spirit in Holmes and in Fayne and Earl Turner, who plays Holmes' father in the play.
"Moss had thought the tradition of the gladiator was gone until he saw us," Holmes says.
This isn't Holmes' first attempt at an autobiographical musical. About 10 years ago he created "Comfortable Shoes," which played a few engagements in Chicago and other places but didn't really get off the ground.
Both productions are based on Holmes life, but there the similarity ends.
" 'Shoes' was light and lovely," Holmes said. "This one is light and lovely, and also dark and tough."
"Just Another Man" opens with nightclub entertainer Ray Coles (played by Holmes) having cancer surgery. While he's under anesthesia, his life story unfolds in his mind. The play follows his family relationships, growing up, adapting, maturing, overcoming obstacles - such as getting a musical from idea all the way to Broadway.
"In this business so many different things have to come together at the right time," he said. "Money. Cast. A place to do it. Larry Moss has turned down two movies and three plays, that I know of, to remain here and do this.
"I see this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I can't work at anything else. I can't talk to anybody about a steady gig here or anywhere else. This is a total commitment."
Moss, a former teacher at Juilliard and Circle in the Square in New York and founder of the Larry Moss Studio in Los Angeles, moved to Las Vegas to work on the musical. Quinn moved here from Connecticut.
"Larry says the play asks for what it wants," Holmes says.
More than 40 songs were written for the musical. That has been trimmed to about 25, and that number may be cut by a couple more before the musical is finished.
Holmes envisions a scenario for success.
The next step is to get the play onstage. Preview performances begin Friday and the premiere is set for June 7. After a month at UNLV, Holmes, Moss and the rest of the collaborators will look at what they have learned and make whatever changes are needed before taking it to the next level.
"Then we would go over to England and do it for a few months outside of London. Then go to the West End and run it for as long as it's successful and maybe, in a perfect world, have a company stay there and do the play," Holmes says.
"Then I would like to come over here and tour it in the United States - San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago - and then two years from now go to Broadway."
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