Gavin Creel, the Tony-winning musical theater star, has died at 48

A tall Midwesterner with a high tenor voice, Mr. Creel won over audiences from his first appearance on Broadway opposite Sutton Foster in the 2002 musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” Set in Jazz Age New York and adapted from a 1967 movie of the same name, the show earned him a Tony nomination for best actor — he played Jimmy Smith, Foster's playful love interest — and established him as one of musical theater's most talented young performers. . .

Mr. Creel plays the clean-cut innocent and comically arrogant young man, toggling between productions in New York and London's West End, where he made his 2006 debut as Bart in “Mary Poppins.”

He received a second Tony nomination in 2009, showing a screwy side as hippie Claude in a revival of “Hair,” and won an Olivier for best actor in a musical in 2014, playing Elder Price in “The Book of Mormon,” an arrogant missionary in a Ugandan village. was sent

Three years later, he appeared in an all-star revival of “Hello, Dolly!”, winning a Tony for his portrayal of cheerful clerk Cornelius Hackle. The musical opened in April 2017 and ran for 16 months, with a cast that included Bette Midler, Donna Murphy, Bernadette Peters and two of Mr. Creel's “mentors and heroes”: Victor Gerber and David Hyde Pierce, who plays Rich. He played the role of the boss.

“That show was not a musical. It was an event,” Mr. Creel told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2018. “I tried to play it cool, act like it made sense, but it didn't,” he added.

Mr. Creel, who also won a Drama Desk Award for the role, was unusually candid about his life as an actor and the divide he sometimes felt between his private self and the bright, ever-cheerful version he often presented to the public.

“I can be absolutely happy, and deeply anxious and seriously lonely,” she told Metrosource magazine last year. A statement from his publicist noted that Mr Creel had the word “both” tattooed on his left wrist, as a reminder of life's “inherent conflict”.

At times Mr. Creel drew on this conflict for his work, finding connections between his life and the characters he played, even when his roles were ripped straight from storybooks.

For his last Broadway musical, the 2022 revival of Stephen Sondheim's fractured fairy tale showcase “Into the Woods,” he played the Wolf as well as Cinderella's Prince, delivering a performance that New York Times reviewer Alexis Solowski praised as “believing and flawless.” “

Mr. Creel told MetroSource that he played Yuvraj as a character who was fundamentally insecure and known for playing a gay man who came out in his early 30s while preparing for his third Broadway musical. Over the years, she said, she had “constantly tried to please everyone and get what people thought I deserved, when I really didn't think I deserved it.

“I've been so ashamed, sad, gay, self-loathing, gay, you know?” He continued. “And I thought, Oh, I know him. The guy is insecure and scared. He's trying to puff up and show everyone he's a king, when he thinks he's a coward. Until he can face his cowardice, he's going to be king. can't

The youngest of three children, Gavin James Creel was born on April 18, 1976 in Findlay, Ohio. His mother, the former Nancy Clemens, was an interior decorator; His father, James, worked for Marathon Oil. His grandmother, a music teacher, played the piano while he sang as a boy.

Within a few years, Mr. Creel was performing as a soloist on stage in “Gary, Indiana” for an elementary school production of “The Music Man.” She took piano and trumpet lessons, sang in her family's United Methodist church, and studied musical theater at the University of Michigan, graduating in 1998.

That same year, he appeared in a national tour of the musical “Fame,” based on a 1980 film about students from New York's High School of Performing Arts. She soon moved to New York, performing in Broadway musicals including the 2004 revival of “La Cage aux Folles” and the 2016 revival of “She Loves Me” opposite Jane Krakowski.

Mr. Creel joined the Broadway cast of “The Book of Mormon” reprising his missionary role after playing Elder Price in London and appeared in the London and New York productions of “Waitress” in the West End in 2020. Lyricist and composer of the musical, Sara Bareilles.

After he came out as openly gay while leading “Hair,” Mr. Creel became an increasingly outspoken advocate for marriage equality, co-founding Broadway Impact, a grassroots organization to marshal support for same-sex marriage. While performing in the musical, she successfully urged “Heirs” producers to cancel a performance so the cast could participate in the 2009 National Equality March, a Washington rally for LGBTQ+ rights.

In addition to her partner, Ward, an actor and singer, survivors include her parents and two sisters.

Away from Broadway, Mr. Creel has occasionally acted on screen, playing a hotel waiter in the 2003 TV movie “Aloys at the Plaza,” starring Julie Andrews, and appearing in a 2021 installment of “American Horror Stories.” She has written and performed her own music, released three independently released pop albums, and performed in concert.

His final credits included an Off-Broadway show, “Walk On Through: Confessions of a Museum Novice,” which he wrote and starred in himself, inspired by a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The musical, which closed in January after a two-month run at the MCC Theater, received mixed reviews, although critics, including Charles Isherwood of the Wall Street Journal, praised Mr. Creel's mischievous lyrics.

For one song, Mr. Creel sang wistfully – “I'd like to be an actor, a doctor, an architect / Or start a community or a new regime” – while standing in front of a Jackson Pollock painting. “The song then transitioned into a duet with Pollock, sung by Ryan Vasquez,” notes Isherwood. “Pollock has a dry sense of humor: 'Did you read my Wikipedia page? Don't drink and drive.' “