Gavin Creel was always so lively on stage that it is difficult to accept the news of his tragic death at age 48. Every time I saw him, I noticed his flamboyant talent.
He had a way of mixing innocence and irony that made him the most sincere, dashing, and lovable Broadway ham of his era. And by “ham,” I of course mean musical theater virtuoso.
His peers, who are mourning his loss, singled him out for his praise as he shared the spotlight with them. In an interview I did with Ben Platt, while he was starring in the 2023 Broadway revival of “Parade,” he introduced Creel as the “coolest” example of what he aspired to do as a musical theater performer and contemporary recording artist.
It wasn’t just Creel’s beauty or his majestic singing that stopped you in your tracks. Those qualities were certainly on display in her Tony-winning performance in the 2017 revival of “Hello, Dolly!” », with Bette Midler. The actor, an Ohio native who died of cancer, also received Tony nominations for his leading performances in “Hair” and Thoroughly Modern Millie. If you want a taste of his magic, here he’s alongside Jane Krakowski in the 2016 Broadway revival of “She Loves Me,” reviving the love-drunk number “Ilona” in all its zany, bawdy, sing-song euphoria .
What made Creel’s performance stand out was his ability to both be the butt of a joke and in on the joke, a balancing act he again pulled off to perfection in the 2022 Broadway revival of “Into the Woods” playing both the Wolf and the Prince in Cinderella. . When the production arrived at the Ahmanson last summer, I noticed that Creel, “infusing each reading with delicious originality,” had only gotten better.
When as a wolf he confronted Little Red Riding Hood in the woods, he would creep up on her as if “she were a roast hen he would like to lie down with.” And in the role of Cinderella’s prince, he transformed into “a hunk” who understands very well that he is supposed to be charming, not sincere, as the character himself explains later in the musical .
Creel, of course, managed to be both. The applause he and Jason Forbach received after finishing their beautiful and hilarious duet of “Agony,” one of the highlights of “Into the Woods,” was among the loudest I’ve heard in decades theater. The anthem, sung by two royal princes who see no reason to grow up, is so good that it is repeated for another round of ecstasy.
I have to believe that those thunderous ovations still resonate in a corner of the Ahmanson.
