Gavin Creel Takes Provincetown (For Just Two Days)

Gavin Creel can't wait to get to Provincetown. "I've never been. Well, not really. One time I went for 3 hours when I was on a cruise, and we had just enough time to go to the beach. I've heard that it's debaucherous and fun and sexy and wild and beautiful and calm and all of those things, so I am looking forward to experiencing all of it."

Initially Creel was scheduled to be in Ptown a few years ago with Seth Rudetsky at the Art House in 2011. But Hurricane Irene intervened and the date was cancelled. When he returned to the States following his 19 months in London in "The Book of Mormon," Rudetsky suggested they make the date up, which they are doing this week at the Art House (September 5 and 60. Then Creel came up with a concept. "What I suggested was that Seth pick the songs and I will sing them, so I have been learning the stuff he chose. It's a duet - he picks the music, I sing it, then we talk about it."

A Broadway mix

The result, Creel says, "is a Broadway mix with some 1970s pop songs, some newer theater songs, older theater songs - just a great, casual evening of sharing music with a great, fun crowd, I hope."

It's hard to imagine it be otherwise. At 38, Creel has both an easy charm and the All American boyish looks that made it possible for him to play the 20-something Mormon missionary in "Mormon," a performance that won him the coveted Olivier Award this past April. And as he speaks, it is also easy to sense his creative drive and ambition, which has taken him from Broadway ("Thoroughly Modern Millie," "La Cage Aux Folles" and "Hair") to regional theaters (the rock musical "Prometheus" at the American Repertory Theater), back to London (where he played in "Mary Poppins" and "Hair" before "Mormon"), and into recording studios and cabarets in CDs and performances of his own material. (He has thus far released three CDs, mostly of his own songs.)

He'll sing, they'll talk

For his performance at the Art House, though, the play list will come from Rudetsky. "He knows my voice pretty well. And he picked a couple stunty things, and I said okay. The songs give him an opportunity to talk to the audience about the songs and educate them. We'll be going through songs and he'll talk about them, where they're from. It's sort of like his Chatterbox. I never did this with Seth, but I did a similar thing in London where they played cuts of me singing from my Broadway shows, but I sang my own songs at the piano. For this date, I won't be singing my own songs, perhaps maybe for an encore."

Working with Rudetsky has also been a learning experience for Creel, who cites one song in particular as one he did not know before this gig but has since fallen in love with: "Ode to Billie Joe," Bobby Gentry's mysterious 1967 hit.

"It's so haunting and beautiful. I was just young enough to have missed it when I was a kid. And I really don't know what the song is all about. But I think she (the song's narrator) is a little devil and is playing mind games with Billie, that's my interpretation. I think they were up to something and did something, and Billy couldn't live with it, so he jumped."

As for his own writing, Creel has an idea for a song cycle for which he'll write both the music and lyrics - a first for him - that's in its embryonic stages. "Right now it's so vague that to even talk about it would insinuate that I know what I'm talking about, so I won't even bother. But it's basically autobiographical/search for love/search for purpose in life... just everything. But the thing that makes it unique is that it is through my own voice, so we'll see."

Fondest memories

After 19 months in London, New York never looked better to Creel. "I didn't realize how much I missed it. I came back for two days in May for some readings and I thought, this is where I belong. So I am getting an apartment here and stay put for awhile."

But London's been special for the actor. "The last 8 years of my life - my entire 30s - half of them were in London. I never once thought I would work in the West End, and now it is just part of my life. I couldn't have written it. It's one of those major things in my life that makes me think, don't doubt what's coming, because I would never have guessed that half of my 30s would have been in another beautiful country in such an incredible city, so who the heck knows where I'm going next. I'm just going to float and see what happens."

One of his fondest memories is of the Olivier Awards this past April, where he won the Best Actor in a Musical. "It was like a dream. It was incredible. The day of the awards was the most beautiful Spring day and it was at the opera house, which is one of the most glorious stages in the world. And I lived a block from the opera house, so my friend Jared Gertner, who was also nominated, and we put on gorgeous outfits and walked down the street on the red carpet with our great dates. I was honored that they asked me to sing at the ceremony and winning was just, I don't know, sort of a complete bonus. People asked me if I rehearsed my speech and I said, absolutely, because I didn't want to say the F-word on television and I didn't want to that. It would have been 'What the fuck, bitches!' and my mother would have never forgiven me. And I didn't want to forget the people that were on the ground with me and deserve the award as well. So it was a really cool night."

'You can do this'

Taking the role as Elder Kevin Price, the Mormon youth sent to Uganda for his missionary work, was a different story. "I know they had a hard time casting. I originally said I wasn't interested and I said that in my speech because I was afraid. It was just a mammoth part and to be compared to Andrew, who was just genius, was just too daunting. I was just terrified. But Casey Nicholaw (the show's director/choreographer) sat me down and said, 'you can do this.' And I'm so glad he did because I've learned so much.

"But when we were on tour, I had an inkling I might be a possibility. I had done two shows there and had a small fan base. Obviously the show doesn't need names, but the fact that I was familiar with the town and love London, I thought the possibility might come up and told my agent I was interested. Sure enough they called. And I pursued it."

Creel admits being driven has helped getting him where he is today. "I spent a lot of time in my 20s and 30s trying to muscle, trying to put myself out there. I'm proud of what I did then, but it's tiring."

Part of that drive was to use social networking to promote his solo music career; but since this past Spring he's moved away from Facebook and Twitter. "I tweeted plenty for a few years. I don't regret it, but I'm not doing it anymore. Because if I don't get more famous or more jobs because I'm not tweeting, those aren't the jobs that I want. I'm sure being attached to social media helps, and it did help get my music out. But now I'm relaxing a bit, but if something were meant to happen, Twitter won't be the reason why."

So proud

Creel, though, has never shied away from LGBT issues. He's long been in the forefront for marriage equality and LGBT rights, not just vocally but lending his support to organizations that promote those issue. And he's gratified by the national sea change on LGBT issues.

"I am not surprised by it happening because it's right and true and it's going to happen. It is the justice that needs to happen. But I am surprised by how fast it is going. I am so proud. We have a long way to go - only 19 states so far - but I'm encouraged. I watched the Video Music Awards the other night, and never felt older or as uncool in my life, but I was really encouraged at looking at bands and the young people influencing other young people and seeing that they don't give a shit about who is gay or straight or who is kissing who.

"This is a generation that grew up with the topic of gay marriage out in the open and on the table for conversation, where the generations before them didn't have them. Eventually the Supreme Court is going to have to something and make marriage equality the law of the land, hopefully sooner [rather than] later."

Gavin Creel appears September 5 and 6, 2014 at the Art House, 214 Commercial Street, Provincetown, MA. For more information, visit the Art House website.