Broadway Neighborhood Mourns Tony Winner Gavin Creel’s Dying at 48

The theater group is mourning the demise of Gavin Creel.

Creel’s companion Alex Temple Ward confirmed that Creel died on Monday, Sept. 30 on the age of 48 amid remedy for a uncommon and aggressive type of sarcoma. The information got here as a shock to his followers and Broadway collaborators, who knew the actor, songwriter and singer from his performances in productions like Completely Fashionable Millie, Hair, She Loves Me and Howdy, Dolly! over a 20 years-long stage profession.

Creel was solely recognized in July 2024 and was handled at Memorial Sloan Kettering Most cancers Middle in New York Metropolis earlier than transitioning to hospice care at residence.

“Typically, I don’t have the precise phrases to explain my disappointment. Right this moment is a kind of days,” Josh Gad wrote on Instagram as he shared a photograph of Creel. Creel changed Andrew Rannells in The Guide of Mormon after Rannells, 46, left the manufacturing following its unique run in 2011.

“We have now misplaced somebody far too younger, far too early nonetheless in his journey and much too impactful to our artistic group,” Gad, 43, added. “My coronary heart breaks for his household and his closest pals. That is simply not honest. We’ll always remember you.”

“There aren’t any phrases to explain this loss. Gavin was my first function mannequin, idol and hero,” Ben Platt wrote in his Instagram Tales on Monday. “He confirmed me round backstage after I noticed my first Broadway present. I could not imagine somebody that supernaturally gifted may be each single individual within the constructing’s favourite human being. I wished to sing similar to him and be similar to him.” 

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Lin-Manuel Miranda shared a photograph of Creel singing with Joshua Henry, Brian D’Arcy James, Phillipa Soo and Sara Bareilles to Instagram and wrote that he was “shattered” by the information of Creel’s demise. 

“Gavin Creel was our first King when all we had was 11 songs and he wrapped the viewers round his finger with nothing however a Burger King crown and his mind-blowing charisma and expertise,” Miranda, 44, wrote in a caption. “He’s so liked and it’s unimaginable that he’s not with us. My coronary heart goes out to all of the family and friends and collaborators fortunate sufficient to be in his orbit. We love you and we’ll at all times love you Gavin.”

“I seemed ahead to working with him each single evening. He was implausible,” Bette Midler wrote of Creel in a quick assertion shared on X. “I can’t imagine he’s gone. What a loss.”

Creel booked his first function within the touring manufacturing of Fame: The Musical after graduating from the College of Michigan College of Music, Theatre and Dance, Creel and dealing at regional repertory theater Pittsburgh CLO.

The actor labored primarily off-Broadway till he debuted in Completely Fashionable Millie in 2002 reverse Sutton Foster, for which he earned his first Tony Award nomination. He was additionally nominated in 2009 for portraying Claude within the 2009 Broadway revival of Hair. He in the end gained the award in 2017 for his efficiency as Cornelius Hackl in a revival of Howdy, Dolly! with Midler and David Hyde Pierce.