Interview: Six Degrees of Gavin Creel on the road to the Venetian Room in San Francisco.

The Wonderful Town lyric "Why, oh why, oh why, oh! Why did I ever leave Ohio?" is probably not on Gavin Creel's playlist. The Findlay native has done well for himself since emigrating from the Buckeye State to Big Apple. He just wrapped a two-year run (less a brief hiatus) in the hit revival of Hello, Dolly! opposite the formidable troika of Bette Midler, Donna Murphy, and Bernadette Peters. It was his sixth Broadway show in sixteen years and forever changed his biography from Tony nominee (three times) to Tony winner.

This Sunday he will spend a playful night in the legendary Venetian Room at the Fairmont Hotel as part of producer Marilyn Levinson's fifteenth anniversary season of Bay Area Cabaret. BroadwayWorld-San Francisco Senior Editor Robert Sokol took Creel on a trip down memory lane to revisit his Main Stem alter egos.

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RS: Let's start at the very beginning. Talk about playing Jimmy (Thoroughly Modern Millie), who was kind of dreamy.

I was 24 when I got cast in the show. We were supposed to open in 2001 but obviously, 9/11 happened, and a lot of things got delayed. We were lucky enough to stay on course and open on my 26th birthday on April 18, 2002.

It was kind of an insane beginning. When I moved to New York I was hoping that someday I would get to audition for a Broadway show and that someday I might get in one and that someday I might be able to play a lead and that someday I might get recognition for my work and get nominated for a Tony and everything happened all at once in that first show. I wish I could say I handled it better than I did but I was mostly just fearful the whole time, just "Yuuhhh...What's happening?"

It the most amazing cast and crew, especially Sutton [Foster] because this was her massive breakout role. I was able to observe her and how she handled it and learned a lot from her.

RS: What about Jean-Michel (La Cage aux Folles), who was kind of a shit.

Yeah. He's a total shit. He's also not in the play that much. At the time I thought I had a much bigger part than I did. When I saw the revival after our revival, I was like, OMG, I really wasn't in this that much. (Laughs)

The role is an integral part because it sort of sets up the conflict. His stubborn, homophobic ways force them to all to jump through hoops so he can be happy. The beautiful payoff, not only for him but for his parents, his fathers, is to finally say, "No. This is who we are, and this is how we live," and after trying to fit in for him. It was just so fun to watch and Danny Davis and Gary Beach play that out every night and then eventually Robert Goulet plus Gary. It's so sad Gary is gone now. I can't believe it.

[Tony winner Gary Beach died earlier this year.]

RS: Then there's Claude Hooper Bukowski (Hair), who was kind of bisexual.

When people ask, what's your favorite show you've done, it's Hair. Hair wins out because it changed my life on stage and off stage. I came out of the closet professionally in the press in that show. I owned who I was because of that show and through that show.

We fought for marriage equality with that show. We marched on Washington, and we campaigned during the bows to get people to come and join us to march for marriage equality. The entire cast sat on the walls of the Capitol in Washington DC and listened to speeches for marriage equality and for equal rights for the LBGT community.

The show itself was so joyful and completely life-changing. I've said this before in interviews, but when I die and hopefully get to heaven, I want to see all the people I love and then get to go the Al Hirschfeld Theatre and get to do Hair again.

RS: It feels like the perfect show in which to decide to come out.

I know, but I didn't plan it. Even now, nine years later, it's still scary for someone to say, what will it do to my life, my career? There's still so much stigma and gross stuff out there about people living their truth. I was in an interview before the show even started rehearsal, and the guy asked me, just a notion that Claude was possibly bisexual and struggling with his own issues around sex and orientation and what it means to be blah blah blah. Then he was like, do you have any personal or professional identifications with that kind of thing? Something in the moment made me say, "Yeah, I guess so. Personally I do." I just said it. The thing that really shocked me is that I'm not really famous now and I wasn't famous at all then - outside of this Broadway neighborhood, 99 percent of the world doesn't know who I am - but at that moment in 2009, it got like, a news cycle for a day. I wondered why and then I realized it was because people really aren't coming out. People aren't saying who and what they are. It was before Instagram and Facebook and social media became what it is today, so I think it's a little different now, but at the time I thought, people might need to do this and come out. It impacted me. I thought about Harvey Milk saying everybody needs to come out. Then the foes won't have any power. I just kind of loved that. It was a big lesson for me. Sorry. I went on a little tangent there.

RS: That's OK. So then, hello Elder Price. (The Book of Mormon)

That was an unexpected turn in my career. I was doing workshops with another musical, and I was determined to do that musical because my friend wrote the music. We didn't know if it was going to have much of a life, but I was having so much fun doing workshops for it.

I got a phone call that they were interested in me coming in for Mormon and the tour. I didn't want to leave the city, and I was terrified of the part because it's a bear. Easily the hardest thing I've ever done. Andrew Rannells is one of my closest friends, and he originated the part and was brilliant. I saw it, and I was like, I don't know how he's doing that. I don't know how to do that. Then my friend Casey Nicholaw, whose last performing job was Thoroughly Modern Millie, and called me and asked if I would consider doing it? Then Scott Rudin called, and I didn't know Scott Rudin knew who I was. I said yes, and I learned so much about comedy. It was the perfect storm of writer and music and lyricist and director-choreographer and the whole creative team. I don't think I've ever seen a modern musical comedy crafted in a more intelligent and irreverent and powerful way.

RS: What about your dear friend Stephen Kodaly (She Loves Me)?

I did a concert of She Loves Me in 2011, just for one night with Kelli O'Hara and Josh Radnor. It was just a little magical thing that I didn't think was gonna do anything else. When I was in London doing The Book of Mormon, they called and said, "We think we're gonna do a production of this, would you be interested?" After Mormon, I was so tired of playing the lead, and I thought you know it would be nice to play a supporting role in such a well-crafted piece. It was a lot of fun, and I'm really honored to be a part of that beautiful production.

RS: Then finally, for the moment at least, because it only takes a moment, there's chief clerk Cornelius Hackl.

I got another phone call from Scott Rudin who was like, "Hey! You wanna come do Cornelius Hackl for me?" Are you kidding me? I said let me read the script because I don't know it. So I read the script that night and, I've gotta be honest, I really didn't understand it. I didn't really get the tone or know how you play it but in the hands of Jerry Zaks, you just listen to what he tells you to do and just do that. It was a dream. To be able to do it with David Hyde Pierce and Bette Midler and then Bernadette Peter and Victor Garber and also Donna Murphy. I was working with legends to me. I'm still a fan of them all, but I'm proud to call them friends of mine now.

RS: So with all those men behind you, what have you discovered about the role of Gavin Creel in concert?

I don't really have a good answer for that. I am a work in progress. As far as me personally, the best answer I can give is at the Venetian Room on the 14th. My work will tell you what you need to know about me. That's what the show what it aims to do and to just be in company with the audience.

I've talked to people about it, directors and people, who thought I "should" be doing this or that a certain way. Mary-Mitchell Campbell, my music director, she and I both just say, screw "should" before we go out on stage. It's about what's happening right here, right now and we're gonna let the audience take us and tell us what they want, what they need. We might switch songs around. We might look at each other and say, "Not this. Let's sing that." That makes it's so much fun to do, and I'm really excited that San Francisco's the first stop before we head to other places. I went to the Curran Theatre for five weeks for Mormon, and I fell in love with the city. I thought, "I could move here." I loved it.

Gavin Creel performs for Bay Area Cabaret at the Venetian Room on October 14.

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