How Late Tony Winner and U-M Grad Gavin Creel Showed Midwesterners They Can Dream Big (2024)

It’s not every day that a Broadway star takes an aspiring college student under their wing. A dream? Maybe. But Dominic Dorset, a 2022 graduate of the University of Michigan’s musical-theater program from Saline, is still waiting for someone to pinch him.

Gavin Creel, a Tony-winning Broadway actor and U-M alum, reached out to Dorset in December 2020 and asked him to help him workshop a show he was trying to piece together, “Walk on Through: Confessions of a Museum Novice.”

“That was all over Zoom. The first time I got to actually shake his hand was the following summer,” Dorset tells Pride Source.

How Late Tony Winner and U-M Grad Gavin Creel Showed Midwesterners They Can Dream Big (1)

Creel graduated from U-M’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance (SMTD) in 1998 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theater. A proud alum from Findlay, Ohio, he regularly hosted workshops for young theater students, like Dorset, at the Ann Arbor campus. The two spent three days in New York “collaborating and bouncing ideas off each other” with other musicians, recalls Dorset.

“You took a chance and trusted me with your own story and your music, both of which I will never forget,” he said in a tribute on Instagram.

Creel died on Sept. 30 at his Manhattan home after a brief battle with metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma, a rare form of cancer, according to publicist Matt Polk. He was 48.

Though he died at a young age, Creel left a lifelong impression on those who knew him personally but also those who didn’t.

Creel made his Broadway debut in 2002 as Jimmy Smith in “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” His performance earned him his first of three Tony nominations. He went on to work in other productions, such as "Hair,” “La Cage aux Folles,” “She Loves Me,” “The Book of Mormon,” “Waitress,” “Into The Woods” and “Hello, Dolly!” Working opposite Bette Midler in the latter, he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his role as Cornelius Hackl in 2017.

Creel also performed in productions in London's West End and made television and film appearances, including in “Eloise at the Plaza” and “Eloise at Christmastime,” alongside Julie Andrews. He also released three original albums.

“It’s a strange sensation mourning someone you’ve never met but whose voice you thought would always be there, making the world a bit brighter and better,” says Jake McClory from Royal Oak.

McClory remembers learning who Creel was after his performance in “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” His choir teacher played songs from the musical, and when he asked his mom to buy him his own copy of the soundtrack, he heard Creel’s song, “What Do I Need With Love.”

“I was hooked,” McClory says. “At that age, I was desperate to find songs by tenors that could show me new ways of singing — this was before YouTube and Spotify — and Gavin’s crystal clear, emotive singing was enthralling for me as an awkward 14-year-old gay boy. Once I figured out he was handsome too, it was game over.”

McClory says Creel’s work inspired him to audition for musicals in high school and played a role in his decision to study music at U-M.

“The idea that someone as good as him came out of a school just 30 minutes away blew my mind,” he says.

For so many of us, Gavin was the proof that it could happen for Ohio kids. The dream was something we could reach for because Gavin did it. The dream was always there, but Gavin was that proof — the real-life, tangible proof that it could happen.

Nina West

While Creel was from Ohio, Dorset says in the U-M musical-theater department, he felt like “a hometown hero of sorts.” Everyone knew who he was and the impact he had, he says.

“Gavin’s Midwestern roots, and how in touch he was with his background, made him a more sensational performer. [He] is a testament to anyone from a small community that you can use your roots, however specific they are, to pull from and create art that only you can create,” says Dorset.

Season 11 “RuPaul’s Drag Race” contestant Nina West, who also grew up in Ohio, acknowledged this very sentiment — that queer Midwesterners need other queer Midwesterners to look up to. “For so many of us, Gavin was the proof that it could happen for Ohio kids. The dream was something we could reach for because Gavin did it. The dream was always there, but Gavin was that proof — the real-life, tangible proof that it could happen,” she wrote in an Instagram post.

Creel’s “first grown-up decision” was actually outside of Ohio, when he decided to attend U-M, he shared with Pride Source in 2011. That decision wound up being life-changing. In his Tony acceptance speech for “Hello, Dolly!” in 2017, he even proudly dedicated his award to the U-M musical-theater department, saying, “My education there as a young person changed my life forever. My professors, my classmates, they instilled in me an appreciation for what it is to be an artist and what it is to be lucky to be part of this incredible community.”

He then went on to encourage audience members to pitch in money to help fund scholarship programs so other young people could follow their dreams, like he did.

“Change someone’s life the way Art and Marti Hearron changed mine,” he said. Creel was a recipient of the Arthur and Martha Hearron Musical Theatre Scholarship as an STMD student. Creel established his own student scholarship alongside SMTD classmate Celia Keenan-Bolger (BFA ’00).

"It wasn’t just that he grew up, got the hell out, and lived his dream as a Broadway star — it’s that he never let anyone forget where he came from. He kept coming back to help the next generation join him, and that will forever be his legacy,” says McClory.

Joel Linguar, a 2022 U-M graduate who is now an L.A.-based filmmaker, says people like Creel help people from small communities feel like they can succeed. His Tony speech has stuck with Linguar, who is from Clare, near Midland, because he knew what it was like to need assistance to follow your dreams.

“He acknowledges he wouldn't have made it to where he was without help. The same thing goes for me and every other artist I know from a small town. It takes proactivity, persistence, support and money to create a space for yourself,” Linguar tells Pride Source.

Dorset, who calls Creel his mentor, says he had the “superpower” to make you better just by being around him. He also says Creel stressed that just because a show was being performed for an audience, it didn’t mean it was completed. They were “still playing.”

How Late Tony Winner and U-M Grad Gavin Creel Showed Midwesterners They Can Dream Big (2)

“I can recall many times when he would start over, flub a line, forget a lyric — his lyrics at that — but would just make the most of the moment, either laughing it off or directly addressing it to the audience. It entirely stripped away all power from ‘fear’ that people can feel on stage during a show,” he says.

Above all his accolades, Dorset says Creel touched so many lives personally. This, he says, was clear from all the tributes and memories shared on social media after the news of his passing.

“Gavin made you feel like you were his best friend, [and] he was as approachable as your own brother,” says Dorset.

For those who didn’t get the opportunity to meet him personally though, like McClory, they will always have his music.

“I still love to belt ‘What Do I Need With Love’ while driving around,” he says.

Advertisement

Topics:NewsMichiganEntertainmentFeatures

Read More

Michigan

A 17-Year-Old Was Just Arrested for the Murder of a Detroit Gay Man. What a Local Advocacy Group Suggests for Safer App Meetups.

A 17-year-old from Michigan has been charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of a gay Detroit man, a crime that authorities suggest may have been driven by[...]

By Sarah Bricker Hunt

Events

Drag, Drama and Dancing: Your Guide to a Queer Halloween in Michigan

It’s fall, darlings, and you know what that means: It’s the season of slaying — both for our favorite slasher icons and all those who[...]

By Liam Clymer

Entertainment

Zachary Quinto on Honoring a Real-Life Queer Doctor on 'Brilliant Minds' — and Why the Election Is 'Urgent and Crucial'

Finding a gay doctor to address your health needs in real life is hard enough. The same has often been true on TV, where primetime medical dramas have typically[...]

By Chris Azzopardi

National

Christopher Ciccone, Madonna’s Younger Brother, Dead at 63: 'I Know He's Dancing Somewhere'

Artist and dancer Christopher Ciccone has died at age 63.In an emotional Instagram tribute, Madonna described Ciccone, her younger brother, as “the[...]

By Sarah Bricker Hunt

Politics

'Brat Summer' Turns to Election Fall as Unique Political Tactics Target Gen Z Voters

A presidential campaign using Charli XCX and Chappell Roan to appeal to young voters might not have been on your 2024 bingo card. But then again, Vice President[...]

By Jordyn Bradley

Politics

Filling Rep. Slotkins Shoes: Curtis Hertel on His Plan to ‘Fight Back Against Extreme Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation’ in District 7

The presidential election has rightfully garnered the attention of many Americans, as former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris lay out two vastly[...]

By Liam Clymer

How Late Tony Winner and U-M Grad Gavin Creel Showed Midwesterners They Can Dream Big (2024)

References

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Fr. Dewey Fisher

Last Updated:

Views: 5900

Rating: 4.1 / 5 (42 voted)

Reviews: 89% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Fr. Dewey Fisher

Birthday: 1993-03-26

Address: 917 Hyun Views, Rogahnmouth, KY 91013-8827

Phone: +5938540192553

Job: Administration Developer

Hobby: Embroidery, Horseback riding, Juggling, Urban exploration, Skiing, Cycling, Handball

Introduction: My name is Fr. Dewey Fisher, I am a powerful, open, faithful, combative, spotless, faithful, fair person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.