I was in 'Hair,' which didn't work in London, but it was a show we all believed in.
— Gavin Creel
I have so many passions. I'm just going to keep trying to go forward and see where they take me.
I auditioned at four different colleges. When I got into the University of Michigan, my parents said, 'Okay, maybe you do have talent.'
There's something about a live theater performance: You can't fake it.
Watching President Obama, for the first time in my life, one of us was running for president. He seemed like one of us - and I got behind him, and I got excited about his message and what he continues to say he's going to do. The day he was elected president, Prop 8 happened. It was this bizarre dichotomy - world history - good and bad.
Maybe some of the pronouns have changed, but I've always been honest in my music.
I've always been a believer in the power of art - and music in particular - to inspire change.
I have two older sisters who were phenomenal sportsmen.
I was never late to a show more often than 'La Cage.' Because I lived close, and I didn't really do anything in that show.
I'm sick of people putting boxes around everyone, telling you where and how you have to fit in.
I have been a nomad for most of my thirties, even creatively.
After Obama was elected president, the same day Proposition 8 was passed, there was this fire in our belly.
I wanted to be a movie director. I was just obsessed with watching movies and camera shots and directors. I read autobiographies and stuff of directors.
To be an actor, it's really tough to find your own voice because you're always tied to other characters and going to auditions and trying to get a job, hoping they'll pick you. And I think it's just so important for an actor to have something else that's creative, something that's creative and you're in charge of.
Sometimes when I do a musical, they'll be a scene that comes up, and I'm like, 'Oh, I hate this scene,' but you get through it.
I want to be respected by my peers and do really great work, even if it gets panned, even if I get raked across the coals.
I'd be lying if I said that I didn't want to do a TV show or movie, but life comes first, and then there's business. If this business doesn't allow me to have my life, then I'll do something else and be a happier man.
There's no way you can deliver 'the greatest musical of the century.'
The tech rehearsal for Brits is so different. They have little glasses of wine and walk around saying, 'Lovely, darling, lovely.'
It's exhilerating to be able to explore my own voice.
We have the ability to change people's minds and hearts - that's what we want to do with theatre. That's what theatre does... period.
At the end of the day, I always maintain you can substitute 'The Book of Mormon' for 'The Bible: The Musical' or 'The Quran: The Musical.'
I feel like we're constantly getting better musically, and more of what's in my heart and head is coming through.
My life is my life, and I'll live it.
I am a showoff, the third of three kids.
I'm tired of all the angry stuff out there.
I love Jason Robert Brown.
I'm not much for formality.
I have a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre.
I guess I originally got the bug for performing when I was in choirs and school stuff and all that. I don't know when. I guess I decided to do it because a lot of people said I was good, and I liked the attention.
I like singing too much, and I believe in the art form, the musical. When it's great, there's nothing better, and when it's bad, there's nothing worse.
I like creating stuff and projects, but at the same time, I do like sometimes just having a routine with somebody else telling me where to go, what time to be there.
It's really hard to go into a creative process and not think, 'I might or might not get nominated for a Tony.'
It doesn't inspire young men and women struggling with their own sexuality to be confident in who they are if I'm not confident in who I am.
The most real thing of all, the only thing any of us wants, is to matter to somebody. To feel and share love, even on a friendship level or as deep as a romantic one. Who doesn't want that?
I'm pretty independent.
Being from the theatre, I am always interpreting someone else's thoughts and feelings.
I'm a huge 'South Park' fan, loved 'Avenue Q,' and can not wait to work with Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Bobby Lopez, and Casey Nicholaw.
I think 'Hair' is the kind of show that benefits from the live experience - it needs to be seen and heard.
I've always had a plan for my music career.
I was really proud to be in that show. I will never forget. I got the script to 'Millie,' and I'm flipping through the script and saying, 'Boy, I have some lines... I have a big song.' I was 25 years old and had never been on Broadway before. I got to the end of the script, and I was really nervous and excited. I realized I had a lot to do.
I want to be a poster boy for the uncool.
I don't want to fit in. I want to make music that can reach out to people of all different ages and backgrounds and beliefs and turn us into one, groovin, 'Goodtimenation.'
Musical theater has sort of always been there for me, but I haven't always treated it with the same reverence as it's treated me.
The most powerful thing we can do is get involved locally. Help our local community and become community activists in our own smaller circle.
When people smile in your direction when you do something, you tend to continue to do it.
I think the '60s were a time where they were singing about what was going on around them.
When I did 'Thoroughly Modern Millie,' it was almost every 'first' I could have imagined: I dreamt someday being on Broadway, and then dreamt someday playing a lead on Broadway, and then dreamt someday of getting to originate a role, and then getting a Tony nomination. It all happened at once. I was just terrified.
I want to know that I'm proud of what I'm doing.
I looked at 'Us Weekly' and said, 'I want to be famous.'
