NEW YORK, N.Y. - After Gavin Creel won the Tony Award for his lead role in “Hello, Dolly!”, an interviewer asked him about his time studying at the University of Michigan.
“I think the best thing I learned at the University of Michigan is to truly appreciate the history of the art form,” he said, while wearing a silver tuxedo and the award in hand.
“Michigan’s core strength is to value where we came from and the great history musical theatre provides,” he said.
Creel, 48, was one of the university’s most recognizable Broadway stars, winning the Tony in 2017 and earning two more nominations. He died Monday from a rare and aggressive form of cancer, his partner Alex Temple Ward told Playbill.
Born in Findlay, Ohio, Creel graduated from the university’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance in 1998.
“We mourn the loss of Gavin Creel,” wrote the university’s alumni association in a post on X.
University President Santa Ono echoed the sentiments, pointing to his 2017 Tony speech where Creel said, “My education there as a young person changed my life forever.”
Eric Lofstrom, a local musician who is the executive director of Ann Arbor In Concert, worked with Creel on a few shows during Creel’s university days. Lofstrom said he still has a poster for a performance of “Into The Woods.”
“Today was a rough day,” Lofstrom wrote on Facebook, adding that he got to “watch Gavin’s star take off.”
“The lights on Broadway are greatly diminished today,” Lofstrom said.
Creel made his Broadway debut in “Thoroughly Modern Millie” in 2002, which earned his first Tony Award nomination for Best Actor. He earned another nomination in 2009 for “Hair.”
He also starred in shows such as “La Cage aux Folles,” “The Book of Mormon” and “Waitress” before winning the Tony for “Hello, Dolly!” He won an Olivier Award for Best Actor for his West End production in “The Book of Mormon.”
Creel most recently starred as Cinderella’s Prince and the Wolf in the 2022 revival of “Into The Woods,” a show he first performed in Ann Arbor. His television credits also include FX’s “American Horror Stories.”
Creel was also an activist for Broadway issues, including fighting for marriage equality and starting a scholarship fund with fellow Michigan alum Celia Keenan-Bolger to support students in engaging in social justice causes.
His family requests donations be made in his memory to Broadway Cares.
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