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All Broadway theaters will dim their lights in honor of beloved Tony Award winner Gavin Creel
The death of Broadway and West End star Gavin Creel has been devastating on a personal level for so many people.
I never met Greel but I was a fan and I admired him for his openness. The closest I ever got to having contact with Gavin was an email interview I did with him back in late 2011 on my first day as US correspondent for Gay Star News. Since the site is now kaput and its archives not available, I can’t repost it now. Then last year, I saw Gavin posing with the cast of Into the Woods at the Ahmanson and enjoyed his performance with the national touring company. Many, like Gavin, had been in the Broadway production.
Anyway, this long-winded intro is to say that while I never met Gavin, in all my nearly 25 years covering the entertainment industry – full time and part time – I don’t recall ever seeing this level of loss articulated by so very many people. Gavin touched so many lives and so many people have been articulating how in Instagram posts. It has been something and it has given us a real picture of who this man was off the stage.
This level of loss publicly expressed by so many in the Broadway community made it a bitter pill when the Broadway League announced that Gavin would be honored with a partial dimming of lights of Broadway theaters. Only 11 of 41 theaters would dim their lights, one theater for every theater owner. Apparently Broadway League reserves a full dimming for only the most beloved people.
This immediately felt so wrong on a gut level, tone deaf and insulting to the legacy of one of Broadway’s brightest stars in his prime.
I reviewed Gavin’s Broadway stunning resume beyond Into the Woods and his Tony-winning performance in Hello, Dolly! He was Tony nominated for lead actor for Hair and Thoroughly Modern Millie (his Broadway debut), spent a year as Elder Price in The Book of Mormon, seven months in La Cage aux Folles as well as runs in She Loves Me and Waitress.
I’m not even getting into his triumphs on the London stage, Off-Broadway and other work. It’s a stupendous Broadway career for anyone much less a man who died when he was just 48.
An online petition demanding all theaters participate was signed by over 23,000 people.
The petition read in part: For younger fans in particular, he has been a key figure in the renaissance of musical theater in this century. His death at the age of 48 is a terrible loss.
We understand that full dimming is meant to be a rare thing. But special circumstances should be taken into account. The community’s sustained and profound outpouring of grief at his death—a testament not just to his youth but also to his character, his talent and his centrality in the Broadway world for the past 20 years—puts him in a different category.
Committee of Theatre Owners on Wednesday said all 41 Broadway theaters would dim their lights on separate nights for Creel, Adrian Bailey and Maggie Smith. The committee also said it was “reviewing their current dimming policy and procedures.”
Below are yet more personal tributes to Creel I came across today. I already posted many in recent days because I’m struck by how plentiful and personal they are.
What a life well-lived. What a legacy.
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