Gavin Creel, Tony Award-Winning Musical Theater Actor, Dies at 48

Gavin Creel, a distinguished Tony Award-winning musical theater actor, tragically passed away at the age of 48 on September 30, 2024. His notable contributions to Broadway included acclaimed performances in productions such as "Hello, Dolly!", "Thoroughly Modern Millie," and "Hair." Creel's sudden death from metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma has left the theater community in shock, particularly given his recent engagement with a solo show celebrating his passion for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Creel won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 2017 for Hello, Dolly! and had also previously been nominated for his roles in Thoroughly Modern Millie and Hair.

In the UK, he won a WhatsOnStage Award and an Olivier Award for originating the role of Elder Price in The Book of Mormon, going on to star in Waitress before the Covid lockdowns. In 2006, he made his West End debut as Bert in Mary Poppins. 

His Broadway successes were mostly in revivals; namely, playing the Wolf/Cinderella’s Prince in the 2022 revival of Into the Woods and the dashing Steven Kodaly in She Loves Me. 

With Rory O’Malley and Jenny Kanelos, Creel cofounded the nonprofit Broadway Impact, a voice within the theatre industry to advocate for the passing of the Marriage Equality Act. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Creel and friend Celia Keenan-Bolger founded the Celia Keenan-Bolger and Gavin Creel Activist Artist Endowed Scholarship Fund to encourage students to engage in social justice causes while at the school.

For several years, Creel, who was born in Findlay, Ohio, played the role of fastidious missionary Elder Price in "The Book of Mormon," embarking on the show's first national tour in 2012, before taking the role to London's West End, where he won a Olivier Award in 2014.

Creel also starred in the Broadway productions of "La Cage Aux Folles" (2004), "She Loves Me" (2016) and "Waitress" (2019) and "Into the Woods" (2022).

In recent years, he appeared onstage in his own Off-Broadway show, “Walk on Through: Confessions of a Museum Novice,” which chronicled his love for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The late actor was also remembered fondly by fellow artists including Josh Gad, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hannah Waddingham, Idina Menzel, Ben Platt and Cynthia Erivo, to name just a few.

Creel is survived by Ward, pet dog Nina, parents Nancy Clemens Creel and James William Creel, older sisters Heather Creel and Allyson Creel and her partner Jennifer Kolb. Per the family, gifts in his memory can be made to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

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Sarah H

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