(This is a sidebar to the main story, "Puttin' on the Glitz: Las Vegas theater scene embraces the big, the brief and the beautiful.")

CAPSULE REVIEWS

Which of the Las Vegas shows do I recommend? Among the Cirque shows, "O" and "KA," plus "Love" if you want to worship at the Beatles shrine. Among the condensed Broadway makeovers, "Spamalot" is as good as on Broadway, "Phantom" is better, "Stomp" is about the same and "The Producers" is disappointing. So is the one showgirl revue I saw, "Jubilee."

Herewith, capsule comments. ... But first a word on those responsible.

The father of Cirque, usually listed as guide and founder, is Guy Laliberte. But it was the arrival of director and conceptualist Franco Dragone that moved Cirque to a higher level and made possible the conquest of Vegas. Dragone has since founded his own company, responsible for "Le Reve" and the Celine Dion spectacular I didn't see, but his Cirque legacy continues with "Mystere" and "O." The assembled critics were treated to a session with Dragone -- here are some highlights.

Other Cirque "directors of creation" and writer/directors include Gilles Ste-Croix, Dominic Champagne, Guy Caron and Andrew Watson, and each show is supported by a phalanx of designers.

"Mystere" at Treasure Island
This is basic Cirque, close to all those tent shows but with the expansiveness that permanence allows. There is less subservience to technology than elsewhere in Vegas and more focus on individual acts. The interactive clowning with the audience is a real hit. If Cirque can strike you as pretentious, "Mystere" is your best bet.

"O" at Bellagio
Cirque's second Vegas creation (1998) is its best chick show -- soft, sensual and flowing like the water that is its element. It takes place on, in, above and under a 1.5 million-gallon pool and also in the air above. It's the most seamless of the bunch.

"KA" at MGM Grand
The guy show alternative -- "'Twelfth Night' meets 'Star Wars,'" one critic said, and I felt parallels to the movies "Brazil," "Waterworld" and "Road Warrior," but with a medieval Asian motif. I loved it. The organizing story concerns a twin prince and princess, who, separated, must fight their way back to each other against fiendish warrior antagonists, finding their own love allies along the way. Thanks to genius creator Robert Lepage, this is the strongest story in the Cirque stable, and the 360-degree gyrations of a gigantic stage make possible the most amazing stage and air battles I've seen. The paired speakers in each chair wrap you in sound, to boot.

"Love" at the Mirage
A concert, really, with 29 Beatles songs (and snippets of many more) from remastered original tapes, supervised by George Martin and son and played over three speakers for each seat. A large cast on a full-round stage creates a grand array of active images. This is the flower-bedecked Beatles, very pretty, very up and festive. (For Jane Vranish's review of "Love" visit post-gazette.com.)

"Zumanity" at New York-New York
"The sensual side of Cirque," they say, but it feels like wink-wink, nudge-nudge sexual cabaret, dominated by unfunny clowning and a raunchy mistress of ceremonies determined to tell us how naughty and daring we all are. A few acts are lovely and/or titillating, especially the near-naked girls cavorting in a giant goblet of water, a kilted contortionist and a bondage number -- and yes, there's a lot of male skin as well as female.

"Le Reve" at Wynn
Not Cirque, but Cirque-like, since it is the creation of Franco Dragone. Much of it is reminiscent of "O," since there is plenty of water ballet, including astonishingly long underwater ballet with lovely legs and red pumps flashing a la Busby Berkeley.

"Spamalot" at Wynn
Close to its Broadway roots, but since Eric Idle's transformation of "Monty Python's Holy Grail" into a stage musical was influenced by Vegas show-biz values to start, it makes the easiest transition. The shortening to 90 minutes is a matter of snipping here and there, so only addicts will regret the losses. Pittsburgh's Harry Bouvy stars as Sir Robin, the role originated by David Hyde Pierce.

"The Producers" at Paris Las Vegas
A disappointment, because the condensation has cut out much of its heart -- the warm relationship between Max and Leo. It starts well and the performances are fine, but the show's second half is especially rushed.

"Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular"
This is my favorite "Phantom," although I'm no great "Phantom" fan. Cutting the limp book puts the focus where it really belongs, on the music and decor. Brent Barrett and Anthony Crivello alternate the lead -- Vegas easily attracts Broadway talent these days.

"Stomp Out Loud" at Planet Hollywood
See the difference? "Stomp" is that show we've seen on tour, but "Stomp Out Loud" must be even more extrovert, in the Vegas manner. The charm of the show is in small things, such as the deft little rhythms with which it begins and the cocky guy off at the side who keeps stealing the spotlight.

"Jubilee" at Bally's
A living dinosaur of a show, a throwback to earlier times, with scores of lavishly topless showgirls who parade carefully, as if afraid to jiggle, accompanied by pleasant but undistinguished singers doing bland versions of Gershwin and other standards. The Rockettes don't show as much skin, but their Radio City shows have more life.

Clint Holmes, "Just Another Man" at Nevada Conservatory Theatre at UNLA (now closed)
Holmes is a dynamic, varied singer from a racially mixed background, and his tell-all story mixes fact and fiction in dizzying ways. Because this is a serious attempt to create a musical autobiography that can travel beyond Vegas, maybe even to Broadway, some longer remarks are appropriate.

The central conflicts are potent. Rei Coles (the name Holmes gives himself in the musical) grows up torn between a white (British) opera singing mother and a black American father who sings bebop. Pretty much shielded from racism in the outer world, he experiences its conflicts at home -- and then outside, too.

Rei is a kind of innocent musical genius who loves and experiments with many musical traditions, soaking it all up. This inevitably leads to conflicts with his father, deepening the son's inevitable rebellion -- a drama reenacted all too soon by Rei's relationship with his own son, who is also talented but talented in different ways.

Add in Rei's different women and you have plenty of dramatic material. It feels very frank about the racial and generational conflicts. But it isn't always clear. We know Rei (like Holmes?) regrets the lack of a recording contract, but the dialogue never really plumbs his feelings about his failure to break out of Vegas and the limited nightclub world.

The ultimate problem with "Just Another Man" is a familiar one: undeniably potent material hasn't found its compelling form. It embraces its origin as a nightclub show, which is true to the story of a nightclub entertainer surrounded by his collaborators, but it doesn't transcend it. That is, in the loose structure of a nightclub revue, there's a built-in star worship that is inconsistent with the show's deeper aim to explore and question that stardom.

This relates to the other ambivalence, that of fiction vs. reality. Clearly this is a version of Clint Holmes' own life story. Playing Rei's onstage musical director, a friend since his youth, is Holmes' real old friend and music director (and co-composer), Bill Fayne; the actress playing Rei's outspoken sister, Lorraine, is Gayle Steele, who is Holmes' real outspoken sister. The Vegas audience, which has known Holmes for many years, reacted to each autobiographical revelation as though it were a direct statement about Holmes.

But of course it isn't. The actors playing Rei's parents and son are actors. Holmes actually has several children, so the one in the show is a composite, or perhaps just created as a dramatic foil. The fact is that "Just Another Man" tries to have it both ways, "revealing" Holmes' real life through the thin pretense of fictionality, but also using fictionalizing to hide from that real life. The loving Vegas audience doesn't mind, perhaps because it can sort out the different levels and kinds of truth, but other audiences might feel unfairly manipulated.

And yet, the material is very strong, and it is enriched and conveyed by a very generous flood of more than 30 songs, music by Homes and Fayne, lyrics by Holmes alone. The book is by the two of them plus Larry Moss. The talent involved is remarkable.

Clint Holmes was a name unknown to me, and even though his music is not my music, I now want to know him better, because his life and sensitivites compel interest, respect and even affection. I hope they can find a way to tell the story more succinctly (it's certainly too long now), without any touch of self-indulgence or congratulation.