Gavin Creel is Dead to Me

I think 🤔 he suffered with that name

Wow, just diagnosed with cancer only in July, and now dead. Horrible.

That is pretty shocking. Gorgeous man, looked younger than his age. Saw him in The Book of Mormon.

Saw him for the first time in HAIR and fell in love with him then. Was very disappointed that he was the only one in the show who didn't get naked.

Datalounge was making fun of how bad he aged not too long ago.

Has Kevin Spacey released a statement yet?

This is terribly sad. Sarcoma causes a lump, swelling or abdominal pain. A fit 48 year old man would never think those symptoms were serious until it was too late.

This is astonishingly sad. It reminds me of Woody Allen’s quote, about life being divided into the Horrible and the Miserable. So many terrible people get to live and a nice happy man with a big smile who wants nothing more than to sing and dance has to die.

Such sad news. He’s been my Broadway crush for a long time now.

He was a lovely guy. This is heartbreaking. 💔

Was it BO?

I grew up with those silly Eloise films and had such a crush on him. I was so excited when I found out he was out and proud years later.

And I know it sounds mind-blowing to die merely two months after getting diagnosed but anyone who's had someone suffering from an aggressive type of cancer in their life will tell you the same thing: the quicker death comes the better.

Oh dear lord, this comes as a shock. I enjoyed him in "Hair" and remember he once dated Jonathan Groff. I'm thrown. May his memory be a blessing.

Awful news. Talented, nice man. Cancer is taking too many people too young.

Here he is with Aaron Tveit from a Miscast version of a song from Rent. This was about 8 years ago, and they both were primo.

Are you fucking kidding me? Jesus how sad. I saw him in Mormon in LA and he was wonderful. Sounded like a lovely guy too by all accounts. Terrible loss for theatre.

This is shocking news. He seemed like a nice guy and I really liked him as an actor. RIP.

He was so good in Dolly.

What a cruel world we live in when someone like him can suddenly die in the prime of his life, and rotten evil monsters live way too long.

Saw him in London in Book of Mormon and a night later he was behind us in line to see Patti LuPone’s show that she did with Seth Rudetsky. He was pulled up on stage to supply vocals in a duet from Evita. He seemed a very pleasant, engaging man.

I'm surprised this thread only has 20 posts. Figured we'd be well on our way to thread closure at this point, but it looks like no one noticed the Deadline article until several hours after publication.

His Cornelius wasn't annoying and was actually likable. RIP

TRAGIC!

I hadn’t realized how many things I saw him in—La Cage, Hair, The Book of Mormon, She Loves Me, Hello, Dolly! Always excellent. Glad he won a Tony, though I’m sure everyone would trade that to have him with us and well. Maybe Chita was there to greet him on the other side.

It is sad. But as someone who has the faculty of experiencing and interacting with spirits, all I can say is that what comes afterwards, for most “gays”, is a state of accomplishment and happiness as we will find the answers to many of our questions and we will get to know why things are the way they are.

"gays"?

He had a hot ass but.....

Oh man, can't even make a joke on this one. How sad.

It was The Vax! Cancer patients don't up and die every day!

There is one person on this thread who might be out of thorazine...name starts with an A...anyone know someone with an A in their name? Could be a brother you didn't know you had, an uncle who went camping and never returned, they might have tin foil on their windows...

R19, please control yourself.

Not every rotten evil monster lives that long.

Broadway Mourns Its Beloved Gavin Creel: “We Lost Our Prince”:

Sad, sad, sad.

R29 I can totally understand why people would make fun of those of us who genuinely have a faculty that 99.999% of humans do not have. We expose ourselves to ridicule and mockery. It’s fine.

[quote]Saw him for the first time in HAIR and fell in love with him then. Was very disappointed that he was the only one in the show who didn't get naked.

Interestingly, the only cast member in the original production who would not get naked was Diane Keaton.

Fucking heartbreaking.

10 weeks ago his partner last posted on Instagram. Cute pictures of them celebrating the partner's 10 years in the city with a cake in their little NYC kitchen. He was diagnosed just days later. Life is so, so unfair.

Aw, so sad. RIP.

Massive shock. Thoroughly Modern Millie was one of the first OCRs (possibly THE first?) I bought. I've listened to it so many times. RIP Gavin.

We never saw the Creel dong in HAIR?

This is so very, very sad. He was one of my favorite peformers.

When I saw him in MORMON in London, my hotel was located next to the stage door. Gavin would always be hanging out (usually with his dog), just chatting with people, long after the regular stagedoor crowd had gone. I talked with him several times and he was always so sweet & charming. (I remember sharing our mutual love for the West End MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, which was playing just down the road.)

I am gutted.

Broadway Barks 2018.

Excellent article about Gavin. Wonderful parents.

[quote]When I came out to parents I was 25 I was terrified. They were wonderful. My mom cried a little bit. She said, ‘Just don’t go marching in any parades.’ 7 or 8 years later my mom and dad marched on Washington for equality with me.”

[quote]His first therapist told Creel that by coming out he was “taking your power back,” and what his parents did with the information was none of his business; that if they ranted and raved and kicked him out of the house he would find his own path. “But they didn’t do that. When I said to my dad I thought it would go worse than it did, he said, ‘I looked around the church and thought how much more dull my life would be if you weren’t in it, and how many people here ask us how you are.’” When the relationship alluded to in the show broke down, and Creel fell apart, his parents came to look after him, cooking, cleaning, and helping him cry it out.

Did he and Matthew Morrison ever hook up with each other back in the day?

I saw him in London when he was in Mary Poppins - the upside down dancing on the ceiling was just incredible, and you could tell how much he loved performing.

What a loss.

Was he hooking or not?

Thanks to sites like YouTube, he will always be young, talented, and beautiful

r47. Thats not him.

Horrible, horrible story. By all accounts a lovely man.

Has Sutton commented? She must be shattered. They became great friends during MILLIE.

Who was his first partner - the one he broke up with and went into a sever depression? It wasn't Jonathan Groff.

I have to imagine this is what eldergays felt in the 80s when beloved gay men were dying in their prime.

Its horrible

New York Times obit

[quote]Who was his first partner

That was me.

I'll always regret that I was never able to meet him, in spite of being one degree of separation away: he took a photo of my son on the stage after a performance of "She Loves Me" standing between two of my former acting students who were also in the show.

Jonathan Groff previously talked to Interview Magazine about the part Gavin Creel played in Jonathan's coming out publicly:

[quote] “I came out to my brother, then my parents, then my friends. But It wasn’t until a year-and-a-half later, in the fall of 2009, I was in love and dating Gavin Creel and he had organized these buses of artists from New York to go to Washington, D.C. for the Marriage Equality March on Washington. And a woman from Broadway.com was there interviewing people and she said, ‘Who do you represent at this March on Washington?’” he said.

[quote] Jonathan continued, “I froze. I hadn’t even thought about coming out as a public person. She was like, ‘Oh my god, never mind. I’m so sorry.’ And then she moved along. And I really remember this moment of looking over to the right and seeing Gavin. He had also just recently come out a year or two before, and seeing him with a bullhorn corralling the people, god, I was so in love with him. I was like, ‘Oh my god, I am coming out. I’m coming out. I’m coming out.’ So I went back over to her and I was like, ‘Hi, please excuse my hesitation, I’m gay.’ And that was how I came out publicly at the March on Washington for Marriage Equality."

[quote]r12 I know it sounds mind-blowing to die merely two months after getting diagnosed but anyone who's had someone suffering from an aggressive type of cancer in their life will tell you the same thing: the quicker death comes the better.

A seemingly healthy friend of mine was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia and died one week later!

How terribly sad when someone so young who is just trying to add some joy to the world around them is taken so soon.

It sounds like he went from treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering to at-home hospice care. I guess there wasn't anything they could do for him. What a loss to his family and community.

So many Broadway actors posting about their sorrowful surprise at Gavin's passing.....I wonder, does anyone know if his illness was a closely guarded secret?

[quote]R33 I can totally understand why people would make fun of those of us who genuinely have a faculty that 99.999% of humans do not have. We expose ourselves to ridicule and mockery. It’s fine.

Can you tell us why so many are molested, so many thrown in ovens, so many profiting off the misery of others throughout history?

Do your spirit friends/animals tell you that?

It would be so interesting to hear the serene justification - -

Yes. He wanted it that way.

Poor fellow. Yet Trump lives on.

It is obvious Creel did not disclose this to many people. Aaron Lazar is dealings with ALS and has been very public with it… I can see the randomness and futility in trying to rationalize a rare and quickly debilitating cancer contributing to Creel’s decision not to publicize it. Lazar ironically through his diagnosis becomes part of a community that has a shared experience, which has major fundraisers and which Lazar is able to spread awareness… an extremely rare cancer doesn’t have that. It’s almost like a cosmic joke, especially for a gay man living in the post-AIDS world to succumb to a sarcoma.

As a young teenager in a conservative, suburban area, I took advantage of the privacy of headphones to listen to the subversive 2009 revival recording of "HAIR" on a loop. Gavin Creel was one of the first Broadway voices I fell in love with, which fostered a lifelong appreciation for the art form. I feel very fortunate I was finally able to see him in "Into the Woods" 13 years later

Shocking. Such a great loss. So talented and joyful.

RIP

This is a gay gossip site obsessed with Broadway and not one poster seemed to have known, or else we all would have known.

Yikes, how scary to have cancer.

Was he the one that theatergoers said would reek from the stage at HAIR?

To go from treatment to home hospice and dead in less than 8 weeks suggests that he had no time to fully come to terms with what was happening and that he declined so quickly that he had a very narrow space of time to communicate with his loved ones. I’m sure he did not want it public knowledge but he also had no time to take well wishes or visitors anyway. Ugh, so sad. None of us wants to linger in pain but I’m sure we all feel some sense of unease and dread at the idea of going so quickly yet not so quickly, does that make sense? I’ll take sudden cardiac arrest where I know absolutely nothing over getting just enough time to know I’m dying but not enough time do anything. His poor parents.

That voice...I first him in MILLIE and I swooned.

People

[quote] Cancer is taking too many people too young.

No, hon. 🙄

R67 = hysterical Frau

My longtime partner went from hospital to hospice recently and has been gone several weeks now. There is no time to process. Cancer is insidious and debilitating. Gavin may have mercifully been unaware of everything but the love that surrounded him and the meds needed to make the pain bearable. What I saw in the last 7 weeks of my partner's life was unbearable. I walked around in a daze. He disappeared piece by piece. I'm thankful I was with him when he drew his last breath and of the life we had together. But what he went through and what I go through now is something I would never wish on anyone. Sounds trite, but they are both at peace.

R72 I'm so sorry.

Go ahead and MARY! me but the tributes I've been reading have made me tear up several times today. He was just so loved and admired. How many people can say that?

The speed with which his cancer appeared to take its toll is truly shocking. I think I agree with R12 when it comes to aggressive cancers, in that your body begins breaking down so quickly. I have an indolent cancer that has been in remission for a while, but it takes over your life and is always just there, just a constant shadow. I'm frequently exhausted with worry, and with having to go to work every day and all the other BS.

But his was truly a light that shone brightly. I know two people who knew him slightly and they both greatly admired his talents and yes, his sexiness. What a shame.

Verificatia of sizemeat?

So sorry R72. I’ve been through it and I know I had some PTSD afterwards. “Disappeared piece by piece” is a great way to put it. It takes a long time for those final weeks to be replaced in your mind with memories of the good times when the person was in good health. And it doesn’t help that there’s very little support out there. Please post here if you ever need to vent or share. The cunts and trolls generally stay away from threads on this topic and the nice people step up.

I’ll always remember Gavin in Hello Dolly, bursting with youthful enthusiasm and seeming 20 years younger than his real age. The “Dancing” scene made me tear up in the theatre and it’s making me tear up now as I remember Bette and Gavin with the biggest smiles, loving every moment. He’s left his mark on many people but boy do I want a word with our “maker” before he dares to judge me because all the wrong people suffer.

r71 = rancid troll

Terrible news.

Was the gray/white hair for a role, or did he go natural?

I met him early on his career--before his big break in Millie--and so can also say that he was one of the kindest, gentlest souls in a very competitive industry.

I saw him three times in the past seven years -

In 2017 opposite Donna Murphy in HELLO DOLLY. He was nothing less than phenomenal, as he had the audience in the palm of his hand. Saw him again the following year opposite Bernadette Peters - again, giving the performance as though he was giving it for the first time, with such enthusiasm and energy.

Last time I was in NYC I saw him again in 'Waitress!' back in 2019. What a talent -n what a performer.

May her RIP. He will be missed by his legions of fans.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Carter lives on ...

He's hanging on to vote for Kamala, r83.

Jimmeh turns 100 at midnight!

He was a lovely guy inside and out. What a loss.

This is really just so fucking sad.

I didn't know the man, and I wasn't particularly a fan, but it has me down.

He tried to bring some joy to people, and by widespread accounts was a genuinely good person.

He was too young and went too fast. Not having time to process what's happening or say proper goodbyes has to be its own nightmare.

What is up with fairly big Broadway stars dying way too young recently?

Rebecca Luker died of ALS at 59. Aaron Lazar has it now at 48. Gavin dead of cancer at 48.

This is so sad. Such a lovely and talented man.

Fucking cancer.

AIDS?

He hadn't looked well for a while.

He looks way too thin in the shot from the late 2023 show in the NYT obit, and here on local NYC TV promoting it. I remember seeing it and thinking he didn't look well.

He may have been in denial or chalked up the symptoms to something else for a long time.

Of course, that type of cancer is so rare and seemingly resistant to treatment, it probably didn't much matter.

I saw him in Hair and She Loves Me. When I saw him in Hello Dolly, he was such a different character that I didn't realize it was him. When I did, my reaction was that he was one of the rare and special talents that sometimes grace the Broadway stage. Not sure why, but his passing has hit me hard

Don't forget Marin, r88.

I saw him in "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and "Hello Dolly." Charming actor with a lovely voice. RIP.

Gavin was one of the truly undisputed really nice guys of Broadway. It appears he had one of the rare and aggressive forms of cancer that rarely give any sign until it is in the final stages. RIP dear prince.

Yes, R93! Marin Mazzie died at 57 in 2018.

All these people had a decade, or decades, of great performances in them.

WTF

The Hollywood Reporter

Judy Holliday died at 44.

Be on the lookout for Susan Dey's condolence statement and please post it here.

I was about to mention Marin too.

[quote] In 2017 opposite Donna Murphy in HELLO DOLLY. He was nothing less than phenomenal, as he had the audience in the palm of his hand. Saw him again the following year opposite Bernadette Peters - again, giving the performance as though he was giving it for the first time, with such enthusiasm and energy.

I saw him opposite Bette Midler.

Cheyenne Jackson says that he’s known since the diagnosis.

In all likelihood he probably was a lot sicker for a lot longer but maybe had other issues like stress or exhaustion which he chalked it up to.

Gavin was so hot as the cad in She Loves Me.

Kristin's statement is really lovely.

He looks gaunt in the lead photo here, taken last November/December.

[quote]Thanks to sites like YouTube, he will always be young, talented, and beautiful

Thank you, Annelle. I appreciate that. And it's a real good idea. Gavin, as you know, wouldn't want us to get mired down. and wallow in this.

[quote] See you in heaven.

Missy seems rather confident.

Gavin Creel singing Billy Joel's “And So It Goes” about five years ago.

[quote] So I would choose to be with you, that's if the choice were mine to make,

[quote] But you can make decisions too, and you can have this heart to break.

He seems ill in the clip at R91 - kind of wheezy and with the lollipop head/neck that DL's beloved Larry King once described as "that cancer look."

I wonder how long he was suffering, and if we'll ever know.

Gen-X-ers are dying left and right.

Shannen Doherty — NOT one of the beloved members of any industry — died in July at 53.

[quote]I grew up with those silly Eloise films and had such a crush on him. I was so excited when I found out he was out and proud years later.

Those ELOISE TV movies with Julie Andrews were my first exposure to him, too, as a middle school gayling.

I thought he was so cute and adorable!

A few years later when I got into musical theater in high school, it was fun rediscovering him via THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, which was already a few years old by then.

I remember making the connection that it was the same Bill from ELOISE whom I had adored as a tween.

Anyway, this is so sad and unexpected. RIP

Let’s just say, I don’t think his family will be calling on Datalounge to provide his eulogy.

RIP Gavin

You LPSG bitches disappoint me. Over 100 posts and not a single dong shot.

Perhaps you should look for it on LPSG

Tell me r114

Be perfectly honest with me

I’m a very compassionate person

.

.

.

Are you autistic or something?

Shocking and sad. To be 48 and have no idea you're dying in June, and then gone by the end of September.

R115 It's called gallows humor, honey.

Those of us that are actual humans use it sometimes. We don't priss out and point at everyone and shriek "Autistic!"

R117, accusing someone of being autistic is also gallows humor.

Grow a spine.

Actually, r114 and r115, I came here figuring I’d read a lovely tribute from someone who bedded this fine specimen.

Y’know, something along the lines of “Tragic ending for Broadway talent. Ok girls, who’s had him?!”

Indeed, R119!

He was a beautiful man.

That pic at R106 is as shocking as this news. I’m so glad he’s out of his pain. My heart goes out to his partner and pooch. How quiet it must suddenly be.

I hate to ask, but was it Kaposi sarcoma?

Do you not have Google, R122?

R122, this CBS News obit has a detailed explanation of the kind of cancer Gavin had:

RIP

R3 he looks 35ish there. Which is how old he was.

What R123 would have said if he weren't a (you fill in the appropriate expletive) is, "He died of metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma."

Fuck you, R122. Seriously. Fuck you.

R126, in response to someone basically asking if he died AIDS? No.

This is Datalounge, not kindergarten. Does R122 need assistance wiping his asshole as well.

It's funny, while I have seen the theater community go somewhat overboard on social media posts before when one of their own has died, this one feels different. It usually always devolves into a post about themselves, but with Gavin, you truly get what a kind and special person he was, and the people who are remembering him are making that the prime message. I hope that his loved ones will see these and take some sort of comfort in them.

[quote]So many Broadway actors posting about their sorrowful surprise at Gavin's passing.....I wonder, does anyone know if his illness was a closely guarded secret?

Apparently, some of his closest friends knew. See Cheyenne Jackson's tribute in the article attached.

Saw him in The Book of Mormon and the Into the Woods tour and had She Loves Me on my DVR for the longest time and watched it regularly (I thought he was miscast as Kodaly, but he gave it his all). Thought I saw him in the Hair tour, but a quick Internet search proves me wrong. Would love to have seen him in Dolly! with Bette. What a charming performer and apparently lovely man and what a loss. I lit a candle for him last night, MARY! me all you want.

I will never forget his love and dedication to my dear friend. He came to see her when she was battling cancer and sang at her funeral. He had to leave his role to his understudy to travel to Michigan to attend.

Even Susan Dey was shocked by this news. RIP

R130, it’s so like Cheyenne to tell us he knew — and make himself look closer than anyone else. God, I hate that arrogant fuck.

Because of course you know the exact nature of their relationship, R134.

r134 makes me wish we had downvoting, like Reddit.

[quote]Even Susan Dey was shocked by this news. RIP

How could you tell?

Gavin Creed cared about Marriage Equality, so in 2012 he recorded a song, "Noise" to help that cause. The song seems to have been inspired by Ann Coulter(!).

In the beginning of the music video for this song, Coulter says that she supports "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" not only for the military, but for all of society. She wanted gay people to shut up and become invisible and leave normal people alone. Gavin's point in "Noise" was that if you shut up and become invisible, you'll never get to marriage equality or any other rights for gay people.

Marriage equality was achieved in 2015. What I get from this video now is how with a different career trajectory and producer, he could have been a pop star (although maybe his voice is a bit too perfect). He would have been a thrilling live pop performer.

R130 Bette looked forward to working with him every night because he didn't dare try and upstage her.

Gavin spearheaded the Broadway tribute concert to his college professor at Michigan . Many recognizable faces in the crowd.

Although not married himself, he was one of the founders of Broadway Impact in the fight for marriage equality.

[quote]Broadway Impact was started by Tony Award nominated performers Rory O'Malley (Book of Mormon) and Gavin Creel (Hair) and production coordinator Jenny Kanelos. The project was started in 2009 and the trio helped gather groups of volunteers to help with Broadway Impact and spread their message.

He was talking with Broadway.com about twelve years ago about his life and career. At one point, he talked about what he hoped he'd find in heaven after he died:

This is sad, he was so beautiful

He does look gaunt in R106 but his cancer is such a rare and aggressive form that it’s unlikely he was sick 11 months ago. It seems to be as rare as a lottery win with few symptoms until the cancer has spread to the lungs, liver etc

I pray that someday, his partner will be able to remember Gavin as he was before this horrific cancer overtook him. I know from experience, that part of the journey takes the longest.

"the journey"?

The journey of grief, R146. Lord.

R146-Never lost a loved one, have you?

Don't be a smug asshole, R148. I have lost plenty, including a few shocking ones in my 20s when lovers shouldn't be dyeing of slow painful disease.

I simply don't recognize YOUR fucking "journey" experience and I did not find it longest to get over the dying period, in my grief. I felt, thank god the suffering is over! I remember all the wonderful times with these people before the horrible end.

dying

"I Believe" from The Book of Mormon. Creel won the Olivier award for his performance in this musical.

At the start of my senior year in a small Michigan town, "Thoroughly Modern Millie", had just been made available for high school productions across the country and our choir teacher/musical director, leapt at the chance to secure the rights for our school.

Though I had never been in a musical before, a close friend urged me to audition. To prep, I listened to Gavin Creel sing "What Do I Need with Love?" on repeat—probably more than a thousand times—without ever tiring of it. I soon discovered he was also a Midwesterner and a UM grad. I watched every interview I could find and was drawn not only to his voice but to his generosity of spirit. If I was going to model my performance after anyone, who better than him? I had the good fortune of meeting Mr. Creel at the stage door of the Shubert Theatre in New York after a "Hello, Dolly!" performance during its 2017 run. He was as gracious as I'd always imagined. We swapped stories about Ann Arbor and Zingerman’s Deli. At the end of our short conversation, he asked again, “Now remind me, what’s your name?” assuring me he’d remember me the next time we'd inevitably meet.

R149-How lucky you were able to get over the hardest part so easily. Many people find it very difficult and time doesn't always help. Try to be a little kinder or at least more empathetic.

Only DL could devolve into an insultfest over grieving.

This fuckin' place and the headcases that populate it....

[quote] [R130] Bette looked forward to working with him every night because he didn't dare try and upstage her.

Not that he, or anyone else, could. Bette was perfection in "Hello Dolly."

If by perfection you mean coasting on her 40+ years of fame.

R157, what she lacked in the vocal department was more than made up for in ebullience, grace, humor and all-around Iconic Diva realness.

I just listened to the final podcast he did. It was taped in July, and I’d be very curious to know if he had already been diagnosed, or at least was feeling like something was off. There seems to be a mania about him. As if he is speaking in a broader, ethereal sense. Perhaps it’s just my hindsight hearing something more, but it wouldn’t surprise me to learn he had an inkling his time was limited. It’s heartbreaking. Seems like such a sweet, tender soul.