July 6, 2007 *
THE STRIP SENSE
Thin-Skinned City
By STEVE FRIESS
I begin this post by stating, for the record, that I admire
Clint Holmes. He is a terrific song-and-dance man, a tireless
supporter of many important causes in the community and a genuine,
all-around nice fellow. Even the requisite self-promotion all
of us who make our living on the brand equity of our names and
reputations must commit to flows out of him with about as little
egotism as I've ever known from a celebrity.
So I'm a fan and have promoted his now-gone Harrah's show
on many opportunities, most notably when I offered it as an
alternative to Celine Dion in a L.A. Times Travel Section cover
piece called "Vegas' Seven Deadliest Sins."
Which is why I'm disappointed to hear from more than one source
that Clint confronted one of the few truly honest theater critics
in a city full of hacks willing to write praise in exchange
for dinner and/or a show about a scathing assessment of Clint's
autobiographical musical, "Just Another Man." The show had a
three-week run at UNLV in June in an effort to see how it works
on stage and, perhaps, move it along to London or Broadway.
Critic Anthony Del Valle of Review-Journal hated the show.
Intensely. He rendered it a D+ under the headline "Holmes' 'Just
Another Man' Not Legitimate Theater." You can read it for yourself;
I'm not interested here in debating Del Valle's critical abilities
or flaws. That's beside the point.
The point is, Del Valle takes his job extremely seriously
and is despised by many for it. He's as likely to give a lousy
(or terrific) grade to a high school production as to multimillion-dollar
Strip show, pulling no punches and sparing no feelings. He honest-to-goodness
only cares about giving his unfettered evaluation to the people
who pay for it, the readers of his newspaper. Many of those
hacks I referenced above will actually suck up to the talent
and the PR folks involved with the shows he pans by attacking
him.
Clint was understandably disappointed by Del Valle's review.
It no doubt threw him off guard. He'd been enjoying uninterrupted
showers of praise from his many friends in the local media for
the admirable nature of the ambitious project he was undertaking.
He'd dreamed for years about "Just Another Man" and now it was
being realized on a Vegas stage with a lineup of terrific talent,
including former "Mamma Mia!" star Tina Walsh.
Yet what Clint did next was wrong: He angrily stomped up to
Del Valle a few weeks later and expressed his dismay. Strangely,
he did it at a reception in plain view of a fleet of theater
critics who were in Las Vegas for a critics' convention. Here's
Del Valle's account, which has been corroborated by others who
were there:
Clint "came up to me and said, 'Do you have any idea what
it's like to work hard for years with people you love and then
be told by a critic that all your effort is only worth a D+?'
I was too surprised to say anything. And then he said, 'We need
encouragement. And you know we get standing ovations every night.'
"
Del Valle answered that as a critic, the response of the audience
is not something that ought to impact his own judgment. Clint
apparently backed off a mite, suggesting the two have coffee
and discuss the show. That date hasn't happened as yet.
Now, I can't speak to whether Clint's show was any good because,
quite regretfully, I didn't get to see it. I was overwhelmed
by work on media night, then June zipped by and suddenly the
run was over. But even if I had -- and even if I had enjoyed
it more than Del Valle -- I would still have been surprised
that a seasoned pro like Clint had such a thin-skinned reaction.
On a personal level, I empathize. As a new book author, I
cringe at the likelihood that someone will tear apart what I
just worked so hard to create. But I also know that that is
the risk that all creative people face when we attempt to sell
our creations to the public for money, and it's something that
folks on Broadway and in Hollywood understands is part of the
bargain. The implication here, though, is that Del Valle should
have sugarcoated his critique or not written about it "Just
Another Man" at all because such ambition and creative industry
deserves unmitigated "encouragement."
I shudder to wonder how Clint may respond if the show does
make it to London or New York or another entertainment capital
where Clint hasn't built up all the good will he's earned in
Las Vegas. How will he deal when dozens of Del Valles render
honest assessments of it, uninterested in how earnest or kind
a person he may be?
I take on this topic because it reflects a broader problem
here in Las Vegas, one that harms every tourist who visits.
If there is one thing this city sorely needs, it is a robust
league of genuine, beholden-to-nobody critics in a variety of
arenas - art, theater, food, architecture, etc. If this city
is ever to truly join the ranks of any of those disciplines
and ever be seen as a city with some cultural -- and not merely
commercial -- impact, we will need to develop that. There are
a few I admire, to be sure, but they and I are drowned out routinely
by the cacophony of faux reviewers, frequently paid in cash
or in kind to write happy talk and have it published for the
purpose of obtaining those ecstatic blurbs meant to deceive
those who would spend their money.
Just a thought.
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