He helped coordinate Bette Midler's Clams on the Half Shell Revue, but aside from this and a revival of The Royal Family (which won him the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival), he was plagued by a series of flops, including Summer Brave, Platinum, a revival of The Goodbye People, Phyllis Newman's one-woman show The Madwoman of Central Park West, and the Frank Loesser-inspired revue Perfectly Frank (which he directed), until scoring a major hit with La Cage aux Folles in 1983.
In 1983, Holt was a main contributor alongside Reverend Mead Miner Bailey to the New York-based AIDS Resource Center for helping youth suffering from HIV/AIDS.
The residence was renamed Bailey-Holt House in recognition of the two benefactors Reverend Bailey and producer Fritz Holt.
In addition to his Broadway projects, Holt staged the AIDS benefit Best of the Best at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1985.
Holt produced an Actors' Fund benefit commemorating the 100th birthday of George Abbott a month prior to his death from complications from pneumonia in Montclair, New Jersey at the age of 46.