BWW INTERVIEWS: 'You Pretty Thing' - Gavin Creel Returns To Joe's Pub

Gavin Creel is ever-evolving as an artist. His career defines "growth" and his music is continuous proof that Creel pours every ounce of his fairly bursting soul into each lyric.

Gavin possesses a voice that transports the listener, be it coming from the stage of the Al Hirschfeld theatre every performance as he brings his "Claude" to emotional life in the Tony Award winning HAIR, or tonight from the confines of Joe's Pub as he plays his first concert date in over 8 months. 

Tickets to the two-time Tony Award nominee's Joe's Pub concert tonight were sold out within one hour of going on sale. A second show that was added to due to the demand sold out in ten minutes! 

Creel will be performing acoustic versions of songs from his debut pop album, GOODTIMENATION, and previewing songs from his forthcoming sophomore album, QUIET. BWW caught up with Gavin as he readied for the much anticipated event.

BWW: Everyone's talking about this amazing show coming up, sold out in an hour! Let's start right there.

Gavin Creel: Yeah, I don't know if you heard about the second show, but it sold out in about ten minutes.

BWW: We heard about that, what a thrill, the audience has been waiting for you!

GC: Yeah, so great, I am really overwhelmed by the response to the show, we had to do a second show, because the first sold out, and then the second one did, too. For those people who didn't get into either, we're going to be doing two more engagements, one in October and one in December. So there's a lot more music and a lot more gigs coming up. We're really really excited about the response.

BWW: It has to feel wonderful about how successful this concert was before you even performed! It has been an exciting period of time for you as an artist, the whole process has been a wild and creative ride, joining HAIR, knowing the last year what you were going through during that period. But then there is that feeling that the universe finally does the right thing...

GC: Thanks! Yeah!

BWW: Do you feel like that, a little bit?

GC: I feel very very blessed. That's why it's easy for me - that last year happened so that I could be grateful for all of this, you know. I don't take any of this for granted.

BWW: You have that spirit - you understand the importance of the shaman-like qualities of what you do. 

GC: And so quickly it could all just go away. And I pray that it doesn't, but if it does, I've been through that, and I can deal with it.

BWW: Sure.

GC: I mean, it sucks, don't get me wrong. I'm no hero. If I had to do it again, I'd be like, "Oh my life, I can't do anything! What's wrong with me?!"

BWW: Hah, but here you are, ready to open up and give up and share some honest emotions of that period on the stage of Joe's Pub. When's the last time you were at Joe's Pub?

GC: Well, I've done a couple of one-offs, I think the last time I was there was... I did a song for the Upright Cabaret. But as far as an actual concert at Joe's Pub, it was a show I did with Laura Benanti.

BWW: That was a BroadwayWorld concert.

GC: Yes, that was thanks to BroadwayWorld!

BWW: An amazing night.

GC: It was awesome. Awesome night.

BWW: Your CD GoodTimeNation is such a pure release, the songs are at once classic pop with a deep hook. Original songs, original music: some people have a knack for it, and have the ability to collaborate well, as you have with Robbie Roth, the songs instantly become so familiar, as if you have heard them before and are excited to hear them again.

GC: That's so nice, The nice thing is, and we do collaborate well, and I appreciate that, thank you so much for saying that; The catchiness is all Robbie, he's got an unbelievable ear and the minute you hear it, you're like, "oh I know that song!". I hope that my lyrics have a way that they're so specific they become universal, and they go, "Oh I've been there, I know what that's like".

BWW: They do.

GC: What I'm most excited about with this next concert is that I'm literally baring my soul for an hour and fifteen minutes or whatever it ends up being. It's just going to be a guitar, me on a microphone, lights really low, people can get a glass of wine, and just here we go. We're also gonna try some new songs out.

BWW: And because of the journey in the last number of months, or year, and the incredible gift of going to London and doing Mary Poppins. All the shows that you do inform you; they change us, continue to make us who we are as far as performing.

GC: Yup. I love that you said "the incredible gift", because a lot of people, you know, including me before I did it, thought of going away as getting off the radar, like I just jumped ship and that's been the best a year and a half of my life. It was incredible - I saw the world, I did things that weren't theatre-related. I met people- I was the only American amidst all the Brits... I want to go back. My dream is to to play that role in New York, but the timing has never worked out that I'd be able to go in. Maybe sometime down the line, I could go in for three months or something. I'd love to play it here.

BWW: About singing songs in general. These roles that have informed you, at Joe's Pub you're going to have the kind of night where you're just letting your soul out, and what a different soul it is right now, at this very moment. Do you ever say, wow, a year ago, I never thought I'd be doing this, two years ago, a completely different scenario was building. Isn't that what's interesting about this business, that it doesn't allow you to truly plan - if you plan too much, you're out of luck in many ways!

GC: Yeah, you're totally screwed. Who was it, was it John Lennon, who said in a lyric, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans". 

BWW: He did. What a lyric, what a thought, so true.

GC: And the crime of it is people continue to make plans. They continue to go, "yeah, I like to plan on things". I gotta take my own advice, because, you know... I was talking to my friend Mike this morning, and I was like "Is love really what we really want? Is love what we're all after?" And he said, "I don't know". I said, "Because My fear is that I find true love, or what I think is true love, and then I look at the person and I go, ‘Okay, now what?', you know?" And he said, "No," he said, "the human experience is meant to be shared, when you truly find that, that- I think that it'll still be work, or whatever, but you'll be like, ‘Oh my gosh, I know I'm okay, I'm safe'." I think what everybody really wants is attention, we just want someone to pay attention to us.

BWW: Having a passion for life, and having a passion in life is part of attracting that attention in a positive way.

GC: Yes, whether you find it in yourself or find it in somebody else, to feel like you have fire.

BWW: Exactly.

GC: I liken it to what my friend said, "I just want that fire, I just want to feel", and that's what's great about this music, and this show I'm in right now, HAIR is all fire.

BWW: About the songs on GoodTimeNation, do you find that now when you pick up a song after a while, when you're going back to some of these songs, do you find they surprise you because you're singing them in a different way?

GC: Oh yeah, you know I find myself picking up songs that I didn't even record on GoodTimeNation, but looking at them and thinking "How did I write that?, how was I able to capture that moment in a way that now I read it and I go, ‘I'm telling the future'", like I wrote a song that was pretty much based on the present, but I sing it now, and I go, "God, this is what I've just been through", you know? And the only thing that can attest to that is that all songwriters, all novelists, whatever, as long as it's honest in the writing, if it's about something that's absolutely true, it becomes universal, I mean, even to yourself; you start to go, "My gosh, I'm like foreseeing my future"... my therapist says "If we make anything, if we make something, we are God", because God was the ultimate creator, the only thing that made him God was that he created something. If you believe in God, let's say you believe in the whole Adam and Eve thing, he created, and then then he was like, "Hey cool, I did that". And any time we do anything like put up a shelf or make a painting- it's very -for us, I mean what we do, it's very palpable because we're always hopefully creating, whether it's just creating a character or creating a song or creating a sculpture or something, you know, that you truly feel that feeling like God must have felt. "Creation is just that Godlike sense", so to be able to just sit down and create a little song that honestly encapsulates what I'm feeling, that's why I think people respond, hopefully at Joe's Pub I'll be hearing that "oooh ahh ooooh" sound.

BWW: When you're creating with a positive purpose a positive reaction is the easy result, being negative takes much more energy!

GC: And so many people do the opposite.

BWW: Of course, it is wired in sometimes, you have to set it free.

GC: That's all too prevalent, but you can smell it a mile away and people don't gravitate towards it, well some people do, but the majority of people don't gravitate towards that, the negativity. It takes too much energy, and it's too costly. Hopefully there will be much positive energy at Joe's Pub, I'm ready to let it out!

On GOODTIMENATION, Creel mixes his musical theater roots with a refreshing pop sensibility, a balance that he has worked hard to maintain. "Since I'm a fan of all different kinds of sounds and styles, I wanted to make a record that takes people on a varied musical journey," Creel says. The songs on the album certainly mark a personal journey for Creel, as he recounts moments of break-up ("Don't Break Your Heart"), confession ("For Nancy"), and bold New York City adventure ("Friday, Saturday, Sunday"). He also will be performing a few of his theater favorites.

Gavin Creel will be joined on the Joe's Pub stage by his co-writer/producer, Robbie Roth, and the concert promises to be a treat for Creel's diverse and fast-growing fan base. 

Gavin Creel received a TONY nomination for Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal as "Claude" in the hit musical HAIR as well as for his role as "Jimmy" in THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE. In addition to his success on Broadway, Creel has previously performed to sold-out crowds at Irving Plaza, Ars Nova, and Arlene's Grocery.

GOODTIMENATION is available on iTunes and through Gavin's web site www.gavincreel.com.

Tickets are sold out but you can find more information at www.joespub.com or by calling (212) 967-7555.

Photo by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.