Tony Award Winning Actor Gavin Creel Remembered at Emotional Broadway Memorial

A shining star on Broadway went dark.

The theater community gathered Dec. 2 to celebrate the life of Gavin Creel, who died in September after a cancer diagnosis only a couple months earlier, grieving through song, speeches, and movement and by the end, there was not a dry eye in the house.

Creel was only 48 when he died but he had a short but brilliant career after making his Broadway in the leading role of Jimmy in 2002.Thoroughly Modern Millie where he was nominated for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. On the silver screen, he played Bill in the 2003 film Eloise at the Plaza and its follow-up Eloise at Christmastime, but returned to his first love live theater in 2004 in the revival of La Cage aux Folles, playing Jean-Michel.

He starred as Claude in the 2009 Broadway revival of Hair, where he received his second Tony nomination. For three years, from 2012 to 2015, he starred as Elder Price in The Book of Mormon; He finally landed a Tony Award in 2017 starring as Cornelius Hackl in Hello, Dolly!

The memorial event was held at The St. James Theatre (currently where “Sunset Blvd.” is running on Broadway on W. 46th St.), lasting roughly two hours. By 1:45 p.m, more than two hours before the doors were slated to open to let people inside, the line to get in stretched halfway down the block in biting cold weather.

Upon entering the theater, guests were given a short Playbill, with a note from Creel’s family and a program list.

“Gavin’s inner light shone brightly and emitted a glow that could not help but be absorbed by those lucky enough to know him,” a note read. “His light has the power to continue to shine by reflecting off each of us...in how we treat people who are both similar and different from ourselves, in the way we honor our interactions with one another, and in what we give to the world around us. We are all connected in this amazing community of humans...a community formed by love and created by the spirit that is so uniquely Gav.”

The St. James stage was decorated with Christmas lights, various microphones and stools, a projector screen featuring the painting “Smashed Strokes Hope” by Joan Snyder (a favorite of Creel’s), and a costume rack.

The presentation began with Creel’s sisters, Heather and Allyson Creel. When they walked onstage, one of the sisters took a red, feathered boa off the costume rack and wrapped it around herself. Throughout the program, whenever anyone was speaking about Creel, they would wear the boa on their shoulders.

The program included songs, speeches, and media shown on the big screen onstage. Every presentation was memorable in its own way, all full of emotion and love.

Singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles, one of Creel’s closest friends, spoke about how she came to realize that in mourning, remembering Creel’s low moments and imperfections is just as important as reflecting on the happiest parts of his life. Whether purposeful or not, her speech ended up reflecting this in being both devastating and memorably funny.

Celia Keenan-Bolger, Creel’s best friend, also spoke about several moments throughout his life, including how he helped her in the time immediately after her mom passed away. The stories she told ranged all the way back to high school, where they first met, and painted a vivid picture of the spontaneous, passionate life Creel led.

Creel’s partner Alex Temple Ward spoke near the end of the program, going into great detail about their time together, particularly the last few months of Creel’s life. It was an emotional ending to a lineup of similarly emotional speakers. The full list of speakers was as follows: Heather and Allyson Creel, Sara Bareilles, Melody Racine, Gus, Charlie, and Beatrice Peterson, Celia Keenan-Bolger, and Alex Temple Ward. There were other shorter speeches, too, before, during, and after some of the musical numbers.

There were five live musical performances; first, Broadway Inspirational Voices performed “Sunday” from Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with George.” Randy Castillo, Troy Ogilive, Kyle Robinson, Jonathan Bernstein, Susan Misner, Chris Peters, Robbie Roth, and Madeline Benson sung or danced to one of Creel’s original songs “Unspoken Heart.” During this performance, the dancers encouraged the audience to rub their hands back and forth. With the whole theater following suit, the moment became a profound demonstration of all the love for Creel in the room, the sound of everyone’s hands echoing off the walls.

Creel’s “Into the Woods” castmates Joshua Henry and Phillipa Soo, along with Shoshana Bean and Ryan Vazquez, performed a mix of the songs “Neverland” and “Children Will Listen.” Both were favorites of Creel’s, with the latter coming from the show Henry and Soo starred in with him. Kelli O’Hara sang “How Glory Goes” in another emotional moment..

The program ended with Will Swenson, Cassie Levy, Nadia DiGiallonardo, and the cast of the 2009 revival of “Hair,” which Creel starred in, performing “Let The Sunshine In.” A recording of Creel singing the song played as the actors sung along and performed their own parts of the song. This was a particularly profound way to conclude the memorial, with Creel having said in interviews over the years that his version of heaven would be performing “Hair” with that cast again.

Interspersed between (and occasionally during) the songs and speeches was some media shown. This included a montage of photos from throughout Creel’s life, individual photos and videos, and (in the background of the finale) some specific media from his time in “Hair,” and from his work as an LGBTQ+ activist. Additionally, many speakers brought up Creel’s love of mindfulness and meditation, encouraging the audience to join in on various affirmations and short thought exercises.

In addition to the memorial, Broadway dimmed its lights for Creel the next day. This came after a massive petition effort this Fall when originally, only some of the lights were to be dimmed in his honor. Just like with the massive influx of responses to the petition, the two December memorial events were full of love and emotion for a person who will truly be missed — love and emotion that will certainly persist, even months and years later.