Gavin Creel, Tony Award Winner for Hello, Dolly!, Dies at 48

Tony Award-winning Broadway star Gavin Creel has died following a diagnosis in July of metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer. He was 48.

Creel made his Broadway debut in 2002’s Thoroughly Modern Millie, originating the role of Jimmy Smith and earning his first Tony nomination. He followed that up on Broadway as Jean-Michel in the 2004 revival of La Cage aux Folles. His second Tony nomination came in 2009 for playing Claude in Diane Paulus’s revival of Hair, and he won the award for costarring as Cornelius Hackl opposite Bette Midler and David Hyde Pierce in Hello, Dolly!

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. Creel was a long-running Elder Price in The Book of Mormon and a brief Dr. Pomatter in Waitress.

For playing Elder Price in London’s West End, he earned the 2014 Olivier Award. His London credits also include Bert in Mary Poppins and the transfer of Hair.

With Rory O’Malley and Jenny Kanelos, Creel cofounded the nonprofit Broadway Impact, a voice within the theater 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.

Creel’s most recent stage credit was a concept musical he wrote titled Walk on Through: Confessions of a Museum Novice. It premiered off-Broadway in 2023 and ran until early 2024.

He is survived by his mother Nancy Clemens Creel and father James Wiliiam Creel, his sisters Heather Elise Creel and Allyson Jo Creel and her wife Jen Kolb, his partner Alex Temple Ward, and his dog Nina.