REMEMBERING GAVIN CREEL
His breakout role--the one that made him a "name" in the theater world--was playing "Jimmy Smith," the boyfriend, co-starring opposite Sutton Foster in the Broadway musical "Thoroughly Modern Millie." in 2002.
Gavin Creel
REMEMBERING GAVIN CREEL
By CHIP DEFFAA
The memorial tribute for Tony Award-winner Gavin Creel, who died on September 30th at the age of 48, will be livestreamed online, on Monday, December 2nd, from Broadway’s St. James Theater, where he starred in 2022-23 in “Into the Woods.” MCC Theater will provide livestreaming access on its YouTube channel starting at 4 p.m. EST..
The memorial at the St. James Theatre will be open to the public. Those interested in attending the memorial in person may Email their name and contact information to: GavinCelebration@BespokeTheatricals.com.
The next day — Tuesday, December 3rd — all of Broadway’s marquees will be dimmed at 6:45 p.m. ESTin Creel’s honor.
Creel died less than three months after he’d been diagnosed with a rare and unusually aggressive form of cancer. He was very well-liked in the theater community.
I’d like to share a few little remembrances….
Gavin Creel and Sutton Foster in THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE
His breakout role–the one that made him a “name” in the theater world–was playing “Jimmy Smith,” the boyfriend, co-starring opposite Sutton Foster in the Broadway musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” in 2002.
By chance, I’d seen his work–and had met him through mutual friends–before he got “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” when he was doing “Bat Boy” Off-Broadway. in 2001. So I knew how he could sparkle on a stage, and I liked that pure, true voice of his.
When he was cast in “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” I chose to profile him in The New York Post. I think that was the first big interview he’d done. He was tremendously likeable, with a wide-eyed midwestern kind of earnestness. He was humble almost to a fault when we talked–stressing how good everyone else in the cast was, and how he was just one small part of a great team. And he loved being a team player. But he really made good in that show. He was a perfect “Jimmy.”
And he went from one notable Broadway show to another: “La Cage Aux Folles,” “She Loves Me,” “Hair,” “Waitress,” “Hello, Dolly!,” “Into the Woods.” He had success on the London stage, as well, in both “Mary Poppins” and “Book of Mormon”–winning an Olivier Award for his starring role in the latter.
Marching on Washington in support of gay rights
Just last winter, he starred in a show at the MCC Theater, Off-Broadway, “Walk on Through…,” for which he also wrote both music and lyrics. He had hoped to develop that show farther.
Gavin Creel was justifiably proud of his work as a gay activist, as well. He was a founder of “Broadway Impact,” a theater-community gay-rights group. And when he was starring on Broadway in “Hair,” he persuaded the producers to cancel a performance just so that cast members could join the March on Washington for Marriage Equality.
The fight for gay rights was important to him, he explained, because he’d grown up in an ultra-religious, homophobic environment and had internalized that homophobia. It took him a long time to fully accept who he was, and live proudly. He wanted others to grow up in a more accepting world.
Gavin Creel and his partner Alex Temple Ward.
The photos I’m posting show Gavin Creel with his co-star, Sutton Foster, in “Thoroughly Modern Millie”; marching on Washington in support of gay rights; and with his partner, singer/actor Alex Temple Ward.
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