Gavin Creel: Staying Creative During a Time of Darkness

As people continue to get vaccinated and restrictions ease up, we will soon return to some type of normalcy.

New York City was among the hardest hit in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, but according to Mayor Bill de Blasio, he envisions bars, restaurants, and tourist sites to fully reopen July 1, and Broadway performances to return in September. 

Broadway theatres closed their doors on March 12, 2020 when Governor Andrew Cuomo implemented mass gathering restrictions, and the lights have been off since. This resulted in the loss of millions in revenue and thousands of performers and workers unemployed. Of course, many creators and artists began to livestream and produce digital content, but there is nothing like experiencing a live theatre performance. Broadway star Gavin Creel can attest to that.

Creel made his Broadway debut originating the role of Jimmy Smith in Thoroughly Modern Millie, for which he received his first Tony Award nomination. Since then, he originated the role of Elder Price in the West End production of The Book of Mormon, performed opposite Sara Bareilles in Waitress, and received a Tony Award for his performance in Hello, Dolly! starring Bette Midler. 

OFM had the opportunity to chat with Creel about the devastating impact COVID has had on the performing arts, how he has taken these times of lockdown to be creative, and what he misses the most about live theatre. 

How are you doing during these days of COVID?
It’s up and down. I think that is something you would hear from pretty much anybody, but I definitely have not enjoyed it. I have learned a lot, and I have been trying to find grace. Just trying to be gentler with myself. It was not a great year all around for many reasons, but the isolation and being alone was very painful for me. I think the best thing that has come out of this is my ability to say that and own that. Be like, ‘No, I am not OK,’ and that is fine. 

I grew up in the Midwest and was raised to be optimistic, look on the bright side, and try to find the positive in everything. I think that is an amazing trait to have, but the truth is, what I did not have as much or was not taught as much was how to feel those feelings that are going to come, regardless of how lucky I am. I have ignored them throughout most of my life. I am going to be so happy when we can get back to our lives, but I am not holding my breath because I know it is going to be for a while. I am trying to stay peaceful and be creative as much as I can. 

With the Broadway community shut down, what have you and your fellow performers been doing to help each other out during these unprecedented times?
My closest friends and I, which I have wonderful friends in the industry, but I have lost touch with a lot of people because they have gone home, or they had to pivot and had to rent or sell their houses. There is almost 100 percent unemployment in our field, and staying in communication with my closest friends has been my lifeline. I also think I am a lifeline to them. 

I have also been trying to stay active with Broadway Cares as much as I can and have the energy to donate to them and donate to other causes that I know are important. That makes me feel like I am doing something to help people that I cannot be in touch with, see, or be in the presence of. So, I am trying to find ways to help remotely. 

Have you been staying connected with fans?
To be honest, not really. I am not on social media anymore. For myself, I just needed a cleanse of inputs. I was feeling overwhelmed with anxiety, and it is also isolating a little bit choosing to do this because I do not know what is going on. I don’t go looking. I have a few people I keep in touch with through a fake Instagram account, but I don’t look at any of their pages. However, that is something that I miss. I miss being able to walk out of a stage door and say hello to people, being able to connect with audiences. 

I am writing a piece that I have been working on for almost two years now that I am so excited about and so joyfully challenged by. That is how I am investing with my fans. Someday soon, I will be able to share the fruits of my labor. I may not have been keeping in touch with them on Instagram or showing them what I have been doing with my life, but they will see what I was doing when I get on stage. That is what I am most excited about. 

I was supposed to do a concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art last year in June, and then of course it got canceled, but I am grateful that it did because I have written so many new songs since that time. I have been processing so many big emotions and I am using the art at the MET to sort of tell my story. Tell the story of where I am at right now and what I am trying to figure out in life right now as a middle-aged, gay, white, privileged actor, singer-songwriter. That will be the best way to communicate with the fans. Giving them what I have been working on.

It sounds like lockdown and quarantine has very much allowed you to stay creative.
It has, but it has been challenging. I don’t know if you felt like this in the beginning, but I was like, I have got to be productive. I have all this time; I should be doing things. I should be making stuff. Then my therapist was like, if you want to, yes. My best friend and I have a post-it that we keep that says, ‘Don’t.’ Like, I don’t really want to write a song today. Then don’t. It is like giving yourself permission. I am not going to not want to write a song every day. Eventually, something will bubble up, or I will eventually get annoyed with myself and sit down and start being creative. 

I will say, I also started doing “the artist’s way.” Julia Cameron wrote a book in the early 90s, and it was big when I was in college. It is a spiritual guide to restoring your creativity. It’s a ton of writing, and I have a couple friends that I am doing it with who were accountability partners, and that has been really helpful to give me a sense of purpose right now. To work on something, it feels a little bit like you are shouting into a hallway that no one is in because it is really having faith in creativity. The world we live in, sadly, does not always celebrate creativity. The most obvious example is when they cut arts funding in schools when things have to be managed. People will frequent football games, but they will not go see a play.

From a mainstream standpoint, being creative is not always encouraged. This is really daring work, and it is a beautiful book, but it is hard. It can be very challenging to write three pages every morning right when you wake up, and then you have these assignments at the end of each week. It is a 12-week program, but we are having a good time. We are finding a lot of cool stuff.  

Has your concert at the MET Museum rescheduled, and can you tell us more about what audiences can expect?
I was told they were looking at, hopefully, sometime late this year or early next year. It all depends. They offered me an option to do it online, and I said no because I am a live theatre performer. I am making something that is supposed to be experienced in a room. It will be filmed eventually, but that will be with somebody who knows how to direct that. I want to be able to sit in front of an audience and do what I know how to do and share the songs. It is all original material that I have not recorded yet, but some of what I was doing was walking through the museum and seeing songs of mine that I have already written in the art. There is one room I walked in, and I was like, this is “The Journey.” 

“The Journey” is a song about my first three years in New York City. I came on an Amtrak train ready to come and conquer. It is on a 365-degree mural that was painted in 1930 by Thomas Hart Benton called “America Today,” and it is the development of America as it is becoming industrialized. You can see the building of America, and I was like, ‘This is a song I have written already, and I can see myself in this.’

The last show you did was Waitress with Sara Bareilles in London’s West End. What was it like to star alongside her?
That was truly the best. We did it for a month two years ago on Broadway. She thought it would be fun to do the show with me and asked if I would do it. I was like, ‘OK!’ I was nervous at first because she is one of my best friends. We have chemistry in life because I love her, and she loves me, but you never know if it is going to work on stage. Also, she has not done a lot of acting, so I did not know what she was going to do. Turns out, she is an unbelievable actress because she is so in tune with herself. She learned quickly, and she knows who she is, so she can call on her facilities naturally. We had the best time, so it was a surprise to go to London and do it again for a couple months. We only missed one week. We had to come home a week early because everything was shutting down, but we almost made it through our entire run. We are very fortunate for that.

What do you think will happen when Broadway reopens?
Oh, man. There is a lot of uncertainty right now, but I think there is going to be a renaissance. I pray there will be a renaissance. I think people are hungry to tell stories, and audiences are desperate to sit down and witness, even if they have to wear masks and face shields. I think people want to be in communion with one another, and they want to hear stories. I believe that is why we will continue to last and why the theatre is never going to die. 

We have had a life of screens this past year. ‘We are just going to release the movie right into your home.’ OK, but I kind of like popcorn and sitting with people. I like it when people are noisy and you have to shush them. I like cheering when Luke Skywalker wins the day. I like being with other people and sharing the experience. That is what theatre is. So, I would like to think that a lot of us writers have been working on things, and hopefully theater owners, producers, and everybody will be inventive enough to get these things out there. If they don’t, screw it. We will find ways. We are determined. 

Have you always had a love and passion for theatre?
Yes. To be honest, it waxes and wanes. Sometimes, I see stuff that I am saddened by, but most of the time, I sit down in a theatre seat, and I am so excited to find out what is going to happen behind that curtain. I started in choirs and school plays, but my appreciation for what theatre can be really grew at the University of Michigan – School of Music, Theatre, & Dance. My mind was sort of blown open. 

Are there any dream roles you would love to play?
Thank you for asking this because I never have a good answer. I was walking the other day listening to the amazing Brent Carver singing a song, and I think I would love to play Molina in Kiss of the Spider Woman. That is something I would like to sink my teeth into. That would be incredible. 

You have played several significant roles in many, many shows. Which one do you hold closest to your heart?
Claude Hooper Bukowski in Hair. I have had many wonderful experiences, and each one has taught me something. Almost each one has given me an injury of some kind [laughs], but I will say, Claude was just magic. Being onstage with those people, being a part of something that pushed me creatively onstage and off, the fight for marriage equality that we were a part of, and waking up to what it meant to stand up for what you believe in a way that I have never really done publicly before and have not done since in a lot of ways. I mean, I have spoken about things, and I put my support behind stuff, but that was like an unexpected moment in my life that I got swept up in and went with. I was surrounded by inspiring people, and I just loved it. I dream of somehow getting to revisit that. Someway, somewhere, somehow.

What do you miss the most about performing live?
The audience is the first thing that comes to mind because there’s that relationship that I love so much. I also miss collaborating. I miss collaborating with a band, sitting down with a background singer and finding parts, telling a guitarist where I want my chords to go in a song I have written, collaborating with arrangers who have ideas for live music I am writing, and I miss being in collaboration with other human beings to make something better than I could ever do on my own. 

We are learning, and I can get by, but it is so much better when you collaborate with other human beings. I really, really enjoy being enhanced and lifted by other human beings without them even trying. Just them being themselves and having their energy getting, that makes me go, this is what I want to make in the art world. This is what I want to use for my voice, my writing, my acting, movement, everything. The biggest thing I want people to feel when they leave the MET show, that will hopefully go on to become a theatre piece that I will get to do everywhere, is that they will leave feeling creative and possible. They will feel like they are floating six inches off the ground. I miss the connection and collaboration. 

Before we wrap up, is there anything else you like the mention or plug?
I just want to say to anybody reading this, how grateful I am that they voted, and they made their voices heard. We, all together, made that happen and saved the Republic from toxic, damaging, horrifying, abhorrent behavior. I understand pain and fear because I have pain and fear myself. I understand how terrifying and how isolating that can be; I have never known it more than during this pandemic, but I cannot understand the mentality that we went through. 

What our administration has done in the first month to send a signal to all people, that all people are welcome and have a seat at the table, that is the American way. I do not understand how the Republican Party cannot see that as the way forward. That has to be the agreed reality moving forward. So, I thank anybody reading this for making sure that your voice was heard. I did as much as I could handle during the time, but I know people out there who did so much work and donated so much money and time and made so many phone calls. Maybe even canvassed if it was safe, and I have so much gratitude to anyone who did that. God willing, we will move forward in a way that eradicates the poison of what we had. 

Visit Creel’s official website, gavincreel.com, to stay up-to-date on the latest news, projects, and announcements.