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Tony-winning Broadway star Gavin Creel has died at the age of 48
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Tony-winning Broadway star Gavin Creel has died at the age of 48

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 continued acting until December, when he played his final role in the experimental musical “Walk On Through: Confessions of a Museum Novice” at MCC Theater.

Broadway star Gavin Creel has died at the age of 48. Marion Curtis/Startraksphoto.com
Creel won the 2017 Tony Award for his performance in “Hello, Dolly!” Jenny Anderson

Born April 18, 1976, in Findlay, Ohio, Creel got his big break on Broadway in 2002, playing Jimmy in Jeanine Tesori’s musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie” opposite Sutton Foster at the Marquis Theater.

During previews of “Millie”, Creel blew out his knee in the speakeasy scene and was sidelined. He longed to be on stage again and struggled to watch his understudy perform with Foster every night.

“I felt like a jealous ex-boyfriend,” he told The Post at his debut. “I thought, ‘I don’t want you there with her.’ It was like I had fallen in love with her.”

Gavin Creel made his Broadway debut in 2002 in “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” The New York Post
Creel was nominated for a Tony Award for ‘Millie’. The New York Post

But he recovered and returned to that stage, where the tenor performed “What Do I Need With Love?” sang, earning his first Tony nomination.

Creel had a special talent 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.”

In addition to Broadway, the actor has performed all over the world.

In London’s West End he played the role of Elder Price in “Mormon” and as Claude in “Hair” – the role of “Manchester, England, England” which he also played on Broadway. And the actor appeared in Stephen Sondheim’s “Bounce” (later “Road Show”) at the Goodman Theater in Chicago in 2003.

Creel ultimately won the Tony Award for Best Supporting 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 in their 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 angels,” Idina Menzel posted. “I love you so much.”