NEW YORK — A memorial tribute to Broadway star Gavin Creel is planned for Monday in the theater where he starred in “Into the Woods” and will be livestreamed online to viewers in the U.S. and Britain.
Creel died Sept. 30 at age 48. The cause of death was an aggressive form of cancer known as metastatic melanotic peripheral nerve sheath sarcoma.
MCC Theater will stream the tribute on its YouTube channel in the U.S. starting at 1 p.m. Pacific. The Society of London Theatre will do the same for British viewers on its YouTube channel.
The event at the St. James Theatre will be open to the public. Interested fans were asked to email their name and contact information to: GavinCelebration@BespokeTheatricals.com.
The memorial will not be available to view on-demand once it has concluded.
The following day — Tuesday — all of Broadway’s marquees will be dimmed at 6:45 p.m. Eastern in Creel’s honor. That follows an outcry by theater fans when only a partial dimming was proposed after the Tony Award winner’s death.
Creel was a Broadway musical theater veteran who won a Tony for “Hello, Dolly!” opposite Bette Midler and earned nominations for “Hair” and “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” He won an Olivier Award for “The Book of Mormon.” Los Angeles theatergoers saw the actor perform at the Ahmanson last year as part of the “Into the Woods” national tour.
Creel’s death put the spotlight on the practice of dimming marquee lights after a notable theater figure has died. While giants in the field get all of Broadway theaters dark for a minute, lesser figures may only have partial dimming.
Creel’s death prompted the Committee of Theatre Owners to decide that one theater from every theater owner would dim their lights. An online petition demanding all theaters participate was signed by over 23,000 people. Eventually, the decision that all 41 theaters would honor him was made.
Kennedy writes for the Associated Press.
