Gavin Creel — the celebrated songwriter, singer and stage actor known for roles on Broadway in Thoroughly Modern Millie, Hair, She Loves Me and Hello, Dolly! — died on Monday, Sept. 30 at the age of 48 amid treatment for a rare and aggressive form of cancer called sarcoma.
His passing was confirmed by his partner, fellow actor Alex Temple Ward.
Metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma is a rare cancer that develops in the body’s bones or soft tissues, such as muscles, fat, blood vessels and nerves. Creel was only diagnosed in July 2024. Before transitioning to hospice care at home, he was treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
The actor’s family and close friends are asking for privacy while they grieve. They request that gifts in Gavin’s memory be made to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
There will be a small private gathering for the family and a celebration of life will be held for the community at a date to be announced.
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Creel was one of Broadway’s brightest stars and was beloved among his community of contemporaries, including close friends and costars Sara Bareilles, Andrew Rannells, Sutton Foster, Jane Krakowski, Aaron Tveit, Caissie Levy, Patti Murin, Colin Donnell, Will Swenson, Kate Baldwin, and Joshua Henry.
His soulful tenor voice, effervescent personality and handsome good looks helped him stand out among a sea triple threats. The out, gay actor also used his platform to advocate for racial equality, to call out sexual inappropriateness behind-the-scenes and to fight for LGBTQ rights — especially during the early days of the quest for marriage equality as co-founder of the grassroots organization Broadway Impact (with Rory O’Malley and Jenny Kanelos).
A native of Findlay, Ohio, Creel feel in love with musical theater in his sophomore year of high school after nabbing a role in their production of Camelot.
“I knew I got bit by the bug because when that show ended, I was depressed,” he told filmmaker Jonathan Theodore Baker in a May 2024 documentary produced by The Broadway Collection. “The show was fun, the music was great, but it was about the people I was with. We were all in a common, passionate goal to tell a story. I wanted that for a living. I wanted to be apart of that for my life.”
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Following his graduation from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance, Creel worked at regional repertory theater Pittsburgh CLO. He then moved to New York where he booked his first role in the touring production of Fame: The Musical.
“I thought, ‘I’m the luckiest man alive,’ ” he recalled, of getting the job. “And from that, I started meeting people from that show, I started meeting their friends and their friends. And I started, just a little bit, feeling like there’s a place for me in all this. in this city.”
“It wasn’t he money, it wasn’t the job, even — what it is is the people. That’s what it is,” Creel added. “These buildings don’t have a heartbeat, these streets don’t have a heartbeat. It’s the people coming together to do something, say something, and then give it back.”
Fame led to more and more work Off-Broadway until Creel finally made his Broadway debut in 2002, starring opposite Foster in the stage musical stage adaptation of the 1967 film Thoroughly Modern Millie.
The performance, as Jimmy Smith, earned Creel his first Tony Award nomination. A second nomination came in 2009, for playing the role of Claude in the 2009 Broadway revival of Hair.
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His first win came in 2017, after starring as Cornelius Hackl in the celebrated revival of Hello, Dolly! alongside Bette Midler, Beanie Feldstein and David Hyde Pierce. He coincidentally received the award from Foster, who was presenting, calling it an “absolute dream come true.”
After accepting the trophy, Creel passed along his advice to actors aspiring to enter the musical theater industry, urging them to “get off social media.”
“Stop living a virtual life over an actual life,” Creel told reporters backstage, including PEOPLE. “Don’t disappear on your phone into a never-ending cycle of neurosis and anxiety. It’s the reason I’m off it completely, which is like, ‘Why am I anxious all the time?’ To be a theater actor, in this business, isn’t to look at yourself. It’s to look outward to an audience and to find the way to give to an audience. If you’re staring at yourself or cultivating a life on your phone, I would say get out of your phones and get on stage.”
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Creel had a number of other credits on Broadway, including the 2016 Tony-nominated revival of She Loves Me (with Benanti, Krakowski, and Zachary Levi), a run in Waitress with Bareillis as well as the 2022 production of Into the Woodswhich transferred after an acclaimed run at New York City Center Encores! That show also won him a Grammy Award for best musical theater album.
From 2012 until 2015, Creel also led a series of productions of The Book of Mormon — from the first national tour to the original West End production (which won him the 2014 Laurence Olivier Award, the most prestigious theatrical awards in the United Kingdom) to even Broadway.
Among his on-screen credits included two episodes of FX on Hulu’s American Horror Stories opposite Matt Bomer and Sierra McCormick.
As a singer-songwriter, Creel produced a number of original albums and EPs. He appeared on a number of musical theater compilation albums, was a staple of Broadway concert and was a regular on the LGBT RFamilyVacations cruise with Rosie O’Donnell.
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His last stage role was deeply personal — a musical he penned and starred in called Walk on Through: Confessions of a Museum Novicethat ran Off-Broadway at the MCC Theater from November 2023 to January 2024.
Commissioned by Metropolitan Museum of Art, the show presented a vulnerable Creel who, while walking the halls of the Met, explored his own place in the world after a failed relationship in an effort to find himself again.
It’s something Creel opened up about in a candid interview with The Daily Beast published in December 2023, in which he revealed that he learned over the years not to base his happiness on industry success.
“I won the Tony Award, and I thought, ‘Something’s going to change for me.’ It didn’t,” Creel said, confessing that “the phone did not ring” with offers. “The bloom fell off the rose a little bit. New people come in and replace you. The cycle of the business meant I couldn’t love it any more. I knew the industry could not be everything. I couldn’t source my happiness from it because it doesn’t have a heartbeat. It doesn’t ultimately care about me.”
Another topic explored in the musical was the influence of religion on Creel’s life, and the path towards his acceptance of God.
“I’m in a place of healing that I honestly didn’t think I would get to,” he said. “The joy and beauty and opportunity I have in my life has come about by being honest and authentic. … I proudly feel God’s blessing. I don’t believe all this good fortune in my life is no coincidence.”
“I believe I am blessed,” Creel added. “I don’t fear God any more. I feel as if I am collaborating with Him.”
Copyright Joan Marcus 2012
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As for the future, Creel told The Daily Beast he was hopeful Walk on Through had a long future ahead.
“With this show I am doing the most creative thing I have ever been part of in my life, and I hope it leads to more opportunity,” Creel said. “That’s what I want. I want the show to go to Broadway, for it to have a beautiful run on Broadway where thousands of people see it, then tour it to the West End, then Australia and the world. I want to be able to serve others with it.”
“If I never do film or TV again, I could live with that, but I’m not ready to never be on stage again,” said Creel. “I love to be able to tell stories to make people laugh, cry, and think.”
