DINH DOONG

Posted: 2024-10-1

Gavin Creel, a Tony-winning Broadway actor who starred in “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” “Hello, Dolly!” and “Into The Woods,” among other hit musicals, died Monday at the age of 48.

Creel’s death was first confirmed to The New York Times by his partner, Alex Temple Ward, via theater publicist Matt Polk. The cause was metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma, a rare form of cancer, which the actor had been diagnosed with in July.

News of Creel’s passing drew an outpouring of condolences from fellow stage and screen actors, including several of his former co-stars.

“Gavin was my first role model, idol and hero,” Ben Platt wrote on his Instagram stories. “He showed me around backstage after I saw my first Broadway show. I couldn’t believe someone that supernaturally talented could also be every single person’s favorite human being. I wanted to sing just like him and be just like him.”

Bette Midler shared similar sentiments on X, formerly Twitter.

“He played Cornelius Hackl to my Dolly in ‘Hello Dolly’ and I looked forward to working with him every single night. He was fantastic,” she wrote. “I can’t believe he’s gone. What a loss.”

A native of Findlay, Ohio, Creel graduated from the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theater & Dance in 1998. Four years later, he made his Broadway debut opposite Sutton Foster in “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” earning him the first of three Tony nominations. He went on to showcase his talents in musicals like “Hair,” “She Loves Me” and “Waitress.”

He received an Olivier Award ― the British equivalent of a Tony Award ― in 2014 for his portrayal of Elder Price in the London production of “The Book of Mormon,” a role he later reprised on Broadway. In 2017, he won a Tony for his sterling performance in “Hello, Dolly!” starring Midler.

Though Creel was primarily known as a stage actor, he appeared on television several times, mostly notably in the family films “Eloise at the Plaza” and its holiday-themed sequel, “Eloise at Christmastime.” In 2021, he had a supporting role in Hulu’s “American Horror Story” spinoff series, “American Horror Stories.”

Behind the scenes, Creel was known as a staunch LGBTQ+ rights advocate. In 2009, he co-founded Broadway Impact, an advocacy group aimed at promoting same-se.x marriage, with producer Jenny Kanelos and fellow actor Rory O’Malley. That same year, he persuaded the producers of “Hair” to cancel a performance so that he and his cast mates could participate in a LGBTQ+ rights march in Washington, D.C.

Creel’s final Broadway role came in 2022 when he portrayed Cinderella’s Prince and the Wolf in the Tony-nominated revival of “Into the Woods.” His last appearance on the New York stage was in “Walk on Through: Confessions of a Museum Novice,” a semi-autobiographical musical he wrote that had been commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The show, which enjoyed a successful off-Broadway run last December at MCC Theater, found Creel using some of the Met’s best-known works as conduits for deeper revelations about his relationships, Christianity and se.xuality.

Speaking to HuffPost last year shortly after “Walk on Through” opened, Creel said he envisioned bringing the musical to Broadway and, later, adapting it as both a documentary film and a podcast.

“I was raised Midwestern, and we don’t talk about our feelings, politics, se.x or religion,” he said. “I’m talking about all of those things in a play. I’m trying to energetically embody myself, and that’s hard because all that I’ve done is tried to make characters that I’m not as real as possible.”

“My parents saw the show for the first time, and my dad, quite beautifully, said to my director: ‘I wish I’d known the pain he was in when he was younger. I didn’t know he needed that help,’” he continued. “And I thought, ‘How wonderful is it that I can share a little window into my experience.’ I’ll get up there and tell you the truth and try to open myself up to you, so that you feel empowered to open up to someone else.”