Hello from the Lisbon airport. I’m on a four hour (!) layover between JFK and Florence, Italy. Hershey Felder hired me to do one of my solo shows (Deconstructing Broadway) as well as a concert with Santino Fontana. It is a quick trip (arriving Monday and leaving Thursday) but I am very happy to get a break from last week’s stress.

Last Tuesday, James and I did a 7-hour “Vote-A-Thon” on Stars In The House. So many highlights to talk about (as well as our upcoming Concert for America on Inauguration Day). But first, I have to catch up with columns I’ve missed. Today’s is dedicated to Gavin Creel, who passed away September 30.

I met Gavin while he was doing Thoroughly Modern Millie and interviewed him on my weekly talk show, Seth’s Broadway Chatterbox. After that, I was asked to get some Broadway folks together to come on the first Family Cruise for gay parents and their kids. This was years before I met James and eventually adopted Juli. I was just there for the Broadway! However, the aim of the cruise had a profound impact on Gavin. Afterwards, he talked about how he always had a certain degree of shame about being gay. However, after seeing the gay parents and their children enjoying themselves on the cruise, his shame was lifted. And, more than that, he became an activist. Gavin wound up joining the board of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and was one of the founders of Broadway Impact, which was instrumental in campaigning for marriage equality.

In the middle of September, when I knew Gavin was probably not going to make it, I texted him about his legacy and told him that there were so many couples, including me and James, that benefitted from his incredible activism. I had never thought marriage equality would happen, yet Gavin and his co-founders kept working until it became a national law. I am so thankful to him.

But, the cruise wasn’t just a call to activism, it was also filled with incredible Broadway performances! Here is Gavin with Jose Llana and Paul Castree performing the title song from Dreamgirls in the final variety show.

I’ve collected my fave Gavin stories from previous columns and put ‘em all here so we can all remember this wonderful person.

Everyone knows I love Gavin’s singing. One of the reasons he had such flexibility with his voice is because he grew up singing along non-stop to Whitney Houston. That's why he wrote this song called, quite literally, "Whitney Houston." 

When he got to NYC after college, he did lots of workshops, like Wicked. Many people don’t know, but he played Boq. As in Boq, the munchkin! Gavin was decidedly not short and told me that his height was the joke. Glinda would say, “Do you see that unusually tall munchkin?”

P.S. Gavin had an actual role in that workshop, but there was another Tony Award winner who was not featured at all: Sutton Foster! Yes, pre-Millie, she was simply an Ozian who sang alto.

Another role he did early on in a show’s development was Melchior opposite Lea Michele in Spring Awakening. And in a tip o’ the hat to Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Gavin was 24 and Lea Michele was 14!

Gavin knew he was too old to ever play the role when it got to Broadway, but wrote the director, Michael Mayer, a letter after the first workshop and asked if he could play it one more time because he loved the show. Gavin did the second workshop and one day, Michael told him he might be right for a role in the next Broadway show he was doing. Michael explained that it wasn't a rock show, it was more Golden Age and wanted to know if Gavin could sing like that. Gavin told him that he was a musical theatre major at University of Michigan, and he could certainly sing that style. 

While he was waiting to audition, he wound up being cast in the workshop of Mask. Gavin told me that, even though he was in the ensemble for most workshops, he would always read the script before rehearsals began so he would have a good handle on the show. Well, he wound up not having time to read the Mask script pre-rehearsal, but he figured he would read it during breaks in rehearsal. He arrived on the first day not knowing anything about the show.

At the very beginning of day, they announced that the leading man was Anthony Rapp. They emphasized the word was, because Anthony Rapp had to leave the show in order to do the film A Dangerous Mind. They then asked Gavin on the spot to play the lead! He went into a panic but assured them he "loved the script." 

Anyhoo, the show Michael Mayer was talking about was Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Gavin started auditioning while doing the Mask workshop. On the day of his final callback, he had two presentations of Mask. He did the first one, went to the bathroom, slicked back his hair, put on a suit, did the Millie callback, and then did his second presentation of Mask à la Lena Hall—who performed in the matinee of Kinky Boots, got completely dressed as man, did her final callback for the role of Yitzhak in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and then did the evening performance of Kinky Boots. And, in a weird coincidence, both of those auditions were for Michael Mayer!

Anyhoo, to paraphrase Valerie Cherish on The Comeback, “He got it!”

Gavin remembers all the amazing feelings he had when he was told he was cast as Jimmy in Thoroughly Modern Millie. First, there was the delicious news that he got his first Broadway show! Then, thinking about how the poster featured a girl, that he'd be playing the love interest of a girl. Then, getting the script and flipping through it and seeing a scene that he's in, then another scene that he's in, then seeing lyrics for a song that he gets to sing, then seeing lyrics for another song etc. He said it was thrilling!

During the first week of Mille previews on Broadway, Gavin was doing a dance near the middle of Act One, and felt his knee completely give out. His leading lady, Sutton Foster, asked him quietly onstage if he was okay and he said, "No!" 

After the number, he limped offstage and was immediately supposed to be in adjoining jail cells with Sutton. Well, he couldn't move fast enough to make it into the jail cell as it rolled on so he hobbled onstage and sang, “What Do I Need With Love,” a song about being locked up in jail, while standing in front of his jail cell. When he began singing the lyrics, "Oh, the places I would like to show you…" and gestured towards Sutton in her jail cell, he saw that she didn't make it back onstage either! He wound up singing the song towards the ensemble girls who did make it into the jail cell. I'm sure the audience had a wonderful time trying to figure what the hell was going on. Gavin then had to come back all dressed up for a scene at a classy dinner party and someone backstage gave him an umbrella he could use as a cane to lean on. He took it onstage and immediately leaned all of his body weight against it and it broke!

During intermission, he laid down in Sutton's dressing room waiting to go to the ER and remembers the surreal moment of seeing his understudy walk by in his costume. No hospital could do an MRI on Sunday (really?) so he got one on Monday, it was read on Tuesday, and he got surgery on a Wednesday. He was then out of the show for three weeks of previews! When he came back, Sutton had lost her voice and they wanted to rehearse her understudy before she went on, so they cancelled the whole show.

Sutton’s understudy was Catherine Brunell and they didn’t have any costumes for her, so they took her shopping at Strawberry. Gavin told me that they said things like, "Hmm... Sutton sings 'Gimme Gimme' in a red dress. Here's a red dress. Put this on!" Catherine went on the next day and while she was dancing with Gavin onstage, the entire back of her dress ripped. Gavin was behind her and suddenly saw exposed bra straps, mic belt pack, and underwear! Catherine was facing forward and coming to the part of the dance where she turns her back to the audience and Gavin danced over to her, grabbed her shoulders and said, "Don't turn around!" Phew.

When the Outer Critics Circle Award nominations came out, Gavin wasn't nominated. Then, he wasn't nominated for a Drama Desk Award. On the morning of the Tony Awards, nominations were announced, and Gavin was awake at 5 AM. Not because he couldn't sleep, but because he thought the Tony Awards were like the Oscars. You know how the Oscar nominations are announced at 5 AM Los Angeles time so it's 8 AM New York time? Well, Gavin thought the Tony's were announced at 5 AM New York time. I’m obsessed with trying to figure out his reasoning. 5 AM Eastern Time, so people in LA could hear the nominations at 2 AM? I kept trying to ask him how he did that math, and he had no answer.

At the time, he was living in an apartment that had a loft bed, so he couldn't actually sit all the way up. There were just a few inches between his head and the ceiling. He opened his eyes around 5 AM, saw it come and go, and accepted that he wasn't nominated because no one had called him. Then, a little after 8 AM, his phone rang, and he heard his agent on the answering machine congratulating him! Gavin said as soon as he heard, "Congratu-" he shot straight up in bed. And smashed his head on the ceiling. He was out of the show for another three weeks. 

#JustKidding!

Instead, Gavin picked up the phone, and his agent told him he had just been nominated for Best Actor in a Musical. His agent also said they were still announcing categories, and that Gavin should turn on NY1 right away. Gavin hung up and ran to his TV only to remember he didn't have cable. He said he wound up just doing a little dance around the room because he was so crazily happy. 

On the night of the Tony Awards, they told him that his category would be right after the Millie number, and he could either sit in the audience or do the number and be filmed backstage when they called his name. He knew he wasn't going to win. His competition was John Lithgow (who won), John Cullum, John McMartin, and Patrick Wilson. Gavin wanted to have the fun of performing on the Tony Awards and making the $2,000 TV salary. The only thing he had to do was to run onstage at the very end of the number and raise both of his arms, earning, what he called, $1,000 per arm. He wasn’t kidding. Watch!

A few years ago, when Gavin and I were performing in Provincetown, Rory O’Malley came to stay with Gavin and see our show. Rory is also a co-founder of Broadway Impact, the group I mentioned before which fought for marriage equality. We were at dinner and Gavin was telling us that he's now eating gluten free. He asked the waitress for the gluten-free pasta, and she told him that the only gluten-free option was rigatoni. Gavin immediately said he would take regular pasta instead. 

Immediately, Rory was obsessed. He kept imitating Gavin proudly saying he would never eat gluten yet as soon as the waitress said it was rigatoni, he said Gavin's subtext was, "I will not put that shape in my mouth!" I agreed! What possible difference does it make? Gavin finally admitted he didn't really know what rigatoni was and panicked. On the way home from the restaurant, Rory insisted on taking a photo of Gavin near a store window because it happened to feature a box of rigatoni. Look!

Before our show, I saw Gavin backstage with a towel from the hotel and thought maybe it was to wipe sweat from his face, diva-style. Turns out it was indeed for something diva-style, but not that. Gavin began the show by coming down the aisle singing, “As If We Never Said Goodbye” in sunglasses and a towel turban. It was perfect! I knew we were going to do that song, but did not know the costume choice.

P.S. We were joking around during rehearsal and added the best homage to Patti LuPone at the end of the song. Check it out!

During our show, Gavin talked about his final callback for Catch Me If You Can. Everyone had to sing “Goodbye,” the final song in the show. If you don’t know, it ends on a high B. Gavin said he went in, sang the song, and as he was singing the final notes, he also commented as well. It went like this (which was all sung).

“Goodbye-e-e-e-e-e!” (then, on the same pitch) "Why is this note so effing high!?”

He knew everyone behind the desk, and he thought they would find it hilarious. Turns out… silence.

Spoiler alert: Aaron Tveit got the role.

This totally reminds me of Brian d’Arcy James commenting on how loud he was singing the end of his song during an audition. Watch!

Gavin told our audience to come see him on Broadway and leave a note for him backstage to say they were seeing the show. I sassily told the audience it was to remind him not to mark that night. He laughed and said he normally gives 40 percent but if he knew that a friend was in the audience, he would give a full 100 percent…of 46 percent. Hilar!

Gavin came to Mexico to do a show for a wonderful AIDS clinic in Puerto Vallarta and James came on the trip as well. At one point, James and I were on the beach with Gav and asked him to take our photo. He was taking forever to and, after I got my phone back, I realized why. He had the camera reversed and, as we were posing, he took tons of photos of himself. Look!

Gavin and I did a lot of cruises together. During one of the variety shows, dedicated to 70s music, I introduced James, my husband, and told the audience that we started dating late in life. I admitted that I’m always jealous when he talks about his other boyfriends. I then told everyone tonight I would allow him to talk about his first relationship and we'd see how jealous I get from the piano. 

James started singing, "December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" and when he got to the part about, "Oh, I …got a funny feeling when he walked in the room..." Gavin came out in short shorts, high white gym socks, and an afro, a hilarious version of a 70s look. Gavin was dancing all around James and working it, and finally near the end of the song, I got up from the piano, ripped off Gavin's wig as he scurried offstage…and James and I ended the song in a kiss.

Take a look!

James and I also hung out with Gavin in London when he was doing Book of Mormon and I was doing my concert series with Patti LuPone. Gavin was a super Patti fan. When he was going to University of Michigan, he drove across the country just to see her on Broadway in Patti LuPone: Live. It took many, many hours because there was snowstorm but, even after driving for so long, he still had the energy to love the show. Why? Because right before the show, he said he drank the one and only cup of coffee he's ever had! I never found out why he'd never drunk coffee before or since (foreshadowing his starring in Book of Mormon?). But I did keep his Patti obsession in mind. 

Gavin and his fantastic co-star Jared Gertner came to our final performance, and when we got to "Fantine's Death," I asked Gavin to come to the stage to sing Valjean's part. What I didn’t realize was Gavin wasn’t a Les Misérables super fan. He didn’t really know the score! But Jared told him to get onstage and he did. 

Gavin sat next to me at the piano and sight read the Valjean part. He sounded amazing and, at one point, because he didn't quite know the number of notes between two pitches, he connected them with a variety of notes that turned it into an amazing riff. After he sang, Patti hugged him and he was so overwhelmed that he said, "I'm dead!" and fell to the floor. Watch it at around 22 minutes in!

Gavin’s memorial will be Monday, December 2 at the St. James Theater. I will leave you with this: My sister Nancy was obsessed with Gavin’s voice and sent a list of songs she wanted him to sing for our Provincetown show including “And So It Goes” by Billy Joel. He wound up learning it and was one of the hits of the concert! As a matter of fact, Gavin always chose one song for people to use their phones and call a loved one (FaceTiming or speakerphone or videotaping) and he chose “And So It Goes,” so I have the video. 

Watch and donate to BroadwayCares.org in his memory.