Gavin Creel, the talented Tony Award-winning star of musicals such as Hello Dolly!, In the woods, Hairand more, died Monday at his home in Manhattan. Par Le New York Timeshis death was confirmed by his partner, Alex Temple Ward, via a publicist, Matt Polk. The cause was a metastatic melanotic sarcoma of the peripheral nerve sheath, which Creel only learned he had in July. He was 48 years old.
Creel has been a Broadway mainstay since he made his debut in 2002 as Jimmy Smith, a charismatic young trombone salesman, in the original production of Millie totally modern. The role, which he played opposite Sutton Foster’s Millie Dillmount, earned him his first Tony nomination. From there, the incredibly watchable tenor starred in a number of Broadway and West End productions, including the 2004 revival of The Cage Aux Follesthe West End Marie Poppinsthe 2009 Hair revival on Broadway and in the West End, 2016 She loves me rebirth, and more.
In 2017, he finally won his Tony for Hello Dolly!a victory he dedicated to his alma materthe University of Michigan School of Music, Theater and Dance. “The Tony really felt like a hug from the community I’ve lived in for 20 years,” he later said. it The Chronicle of San Francisco. “It feels good. I literally can’t do anything else in my life and I’m still a Tony winner. I would never have done that.
Of course, he did many other things. In 2014, he won an Olivier Award for his portrayal of Elder Price in the West End production of Book of Mormon. (He also played the character in the original cast of the series’ American tour from 2012 to 2013.) He later starred as a replacement in Waitress in Broadway and West End productions with her close friend Sara Bareilles, who wrote the songs for the musical. The two shared the stage again in 2022. In the woods revival on Broadway, in which Creel played Cinderella’s Prince and the suave Big Bad Wolf.
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Creel was also a strong advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. In 2009, he founded an organization called Broadway Impact that fought for marriage equality before same-sex marriage was legalized in 2015. That same year, he convinced the producers of close Hair for one day so the actors could participate in a march for gay rights in Washington, DC. He brought this passion to his latest work, Walk Through: Confessions of a Museum Novicea musical that the Metropolitan Museum of Art commissioned him to write and perform in 2019. Creel spoke at length about how working on the project “actually saved my life during the pandemic,” because, as he said, it The Charlotte Observer Last year, “I lost a bit of everything, my career, a relationship, my dog. And I had Covid and I was living alone. But I had this one project…that I kept writing and working on and trying to find its story.
This story, which premiered on Broadway in 2023, proved to be an incredibly “real, authentic, [and] vulnerable” piece for Creel, who it Bord Media Network that “as long as I write stories, they will be queer.” He continued: “For some reason, when you’re gay, it’s all just about the fact that you’re gay…There are an infinite number of stories that can be told about me as a gay man, which have nothing to do with me being gay. , or when it is not the central objective. So go ahead, let me never have to code-switch or shape-shift to make you think I’m straight.
Creel also had a few television roles, notably in American Horror Storieswhere he played a murder house tenant married to a character played by Matt Bomer.
Creel is survived by his parents, Nancy Clemens Creel and James William Creel, his sisters Heather Elise Creel and Allyson Jo Creel, and his partner, Alex Temple Ward.
