Gavin Creel, Star Of Broadway’s ‘Whats up, Dolly!’ And ‘E book Of Mormon,’ Useless At 48 – The Boston Courier

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

Creel’s dying was first confirmed to The New York Occasions by his associate, Alex Temple Ward, through theater publicist Matt Polk. The trigger was metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma, a uncommon type of most cancers, which the actor had been identified with in July.

Information of Creel’s passing drew an outpouring of condolences from fellow stage and display actors, together with a number of of his former co-stars.

“Gavin was my first role model, idol and hero,” Ben Platt wrote on his Instagram tales. “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 related sentiments on X, previously 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 local of Findlay, Ohio, Creel graduated from the College of Michigan’s Faculty of Music, Theater & Dance in 1998. 4 years later, he made his Broadway debut reverse Sutton Foster in “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” incomes him the primary of three Tony nominations. He went on to showcase his abilities in musicals like “Hair,” “She Loves Me” and “Waitress.”

He obtained an Olivier Award ― the British equal of a Tony Award ― in 2014 for his portrayal of Elder Value within the London manufacturing of “The Book of Mormon,” a job he later reprised on Broadway. In 2017, he gained a Tony for his sterling efficiency in “Hello, Dolly!” starring Midler.

Although Creel was primarily often called a stage actor, he appeared on tv a number of occasions, principally notably within the household movies “Eloise at the Plaza” and its holiday-themed sequel, “Eloise at Christmastime.” In 2021, he had a supporting position in Hulu’s “American Horror Story” spinoff collection, “American Horror Stories.”

Behind the scenes, Creel was often called a staunch LGBTQ+ rights advocate. In 2009, he co-founded Broadway Influence, an advocacy group aimed toward selling same-sex marriage, with producer Jenny Kanelos and fellow actor Rory O’Malley. That very same yr, he persuaded the producers of “Hair” to cancel a efficiency in order that he and his solid mates might take part in a LGBTQ+ rights march in Washington, D.C.

Creel’s remaining Broadway position got here in 2022 when he portrayed Cinderella’s Prince and the Wolf within the Tony-nominated revival of “Into the Woods.” His final look 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 New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Artwork.

The present, which loved a profitable off-Broadway run final December at MCC Theater, discovered Creel utilizing among the Met’s best-known works as conduits for deeper revelations about his relationships, Christianity and sexuality.

Talking to HuffPost final yr shortly after “Walk on Through” opened, Creel stated he envisioned bringing the present to Broadway and, later, adapting it as each a documentary movie and a podcast.

“I was raised Midwestern, and we don’t talk about our feelings, politics, sex or religion,” he stated. “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.”