Gavin Creel, the Tony Award-winning star of Broadway musicals such as “Hello, Dolly!” and “Hair,” died Monday in Manhattan, his partner confirmed.
He was 48.
The young actor’s cause of death was metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma, an aggressive form of cancer that he was diagnosed with in July.
Creel kept acting until December, when he performed his final role in the experimental musical “Walk On Through: Confessions of a Museum Novice” at MCC Theater.
Born in Findlay, Ohio, on April 18, 1976, Creel got his big break on Broadway in 2002, when he played Jimmy in Jeanine Tesori’s musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie” opposite Sutton Foster at the Marquis Theater.
During previews of “Millie,” Creel blew his knee out in the speakeasy scene, and was sidelined. Longing to be back on the boards, he struggled watching his understudy act with Foster every night.
“I felt like a jealous ex-boyfriend,” he told The Post at the time of his debut. “I was thinking, ‘I don’t want you up there with her.’ It was like I’d fallen in love with her.”
But he recovered and returned to that stage, where the tenor sang the song “What Do I Need With Love?,” and earned himself his first Tony nomination.
Creel had a particular knack for musical comedy, and went on to star in “La Cage Aux Folles,” “The Book of Mormon,” “She Loves Me,” “Waitress,” “Hello, Dolly!” and most recently “Into the Woods.”
Beyond Broadway, the actor performed around the world.
In London’s West End, he starred as Elder Price in “Mormon” and as Claude in “Hair” — the “Manchester, England, England” role he also played on Broadway. And the actor appeared in Stephen Sondheim’s “Bounce” (later “Road Show”) at Chicago’s Goodman Theater in 2003.
Creel finally won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 2017, for his performance as Cornelius Hackl in “Hello, Dolly!” starring Bette Midler.
The actor was beloved in the theater community, and there was an outpouring of Broadway tributes on Monday.
“We have lost someone far too young, far too early still in his journey and far too impactful to our creative community,” “Book of Mormon” star Josh Gad wrote on Instagram. “My heart breaks for his family and closest friends. This is just not fair.”
“An angel among the angels,” posted Idina Menzel. “I love you so much.”