GAVIN CREEL, a 1994 Findlay High School graduate and two-time Tony Award nominee, is lending his support to the Marathon Performing Arts Center, slated to open in the fall of 2015. Creel was the first person to purchase seats for the auditorium, in the first phase of the public fundraising campaign. Creel will return to northwestern Ohio when “The Book of Mormon” comes to Toledo Dec. 16-21. (Photo provided to The Courier)
By MARGARET DWIGGINS
Family Editor
For the past year and a half, Gavin Creel has made his home in London, where he originated the role of Elder Price in the London production of “The Book of Mormon” at the Prince of Wales Theatre.
In fact, Creel, 38, spent much of his third decade of life in London, where he also had a long run playing the role of Burt in “Mary Poppins” as well as Claude in “Hair.”
Now, he’s ready to be home — almost.
Creel, a Findlay native who has found great success on Broadway, completed his run in the “Book of Mormon” in London at the end of July. After spending a few months back in New York, where he is now based, he starts a new temporary project, one that will bring him closer to his hometown of Findlay than any role in his professional career.
Today, Creel is joining a traveling tour of “The Book of Mormon.” He will reprise the role of Elder Price at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto until Nov. 30. The tour moves to Montreal from Dec. 2-7, then to Kitchener, Ontario Dec. 9-14. And, from Dec. 16-21, the tour stops at the Stranahan Theater in Toledo.
“I’m thrilled I’m coming to Toledo, I can’t wait,” Creel said during a phone conversation in Toronto, where he was preparing for tonight’s opening show.
“I want to be there for the hometown, and for my friends,” he said.
Tickets for the Toledo production went on sale to the public Saturday. Creel said he hopes he will see many old friends in the audience at the Stranahan Theater and at the stage door.
Creel’s parents, Jim and Nancy, retired and moved from Findlay several years ago, and his sisters also live elsewhere in the country, so he hasn’t been back to visit for many years. His last stop in Findlay was in 2006, when he gave a performance in Central Auditorium.
While on tour, the show schedule is “pretty grueling,” Creel said, but he looks forward to visiting his hometown.
“I’m going to try to get down for at least a day, have a Wilson’s burger, have some ice cream at Dietsch’s,” he said.
He is also looking forward to the long run by “The Book of Mormon” in Toronto, which he calls his “second favorite city in the world,” behind London.
“I’ve spent a lot of time up here,” Creel said. He started and ended his first major theater tour in Toronto, for the show “Fame,” and filmed two movies in which he was prominently featured, “Eloise at the Plaza” and “Eloise at Christmastime.” He also recorded two of his records in Toronto.
When Creel was asked to lend his support to Findlay’s new performing arts center, he was happy to oblige.
“I’m thrilled about the performing arts center, too,” he said, and what it will mean for Findlay.
“I think Findlay has been a little bit marginalized,” Creel said. “It hasn’t been able to welcome the big tours and big projects and big performances, or the arts opportunities. It hasn’t had the space to take them in. But we’ll finally be able to. It sounds like it’s going to be a beautiful space. I’m glad to be at the front of that, to hopefully fire up a lot of people to help them out.”
Tickets for the Toledo run of “The Book of Mormon” are available at the Stranahan Theater box office, 4645 Heatherdowns Blvd., Toledo; online at theaterleague.com and stranahantheater.com; or by calling 419-381-8851. Group orders of 15 or more can be placed by calling 866-314-7687.
Dwiggins: 419-427-8477
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