‘Into the Woods’ star talks Sondheim, his NC family and the potential for a strike on tour

Tony winner Gavin Creel didn’t set out to be one of the most vocal advocates for a new contract for actors and stage managers on Broadway tours.

But that’s where the veteran stage actor finds himself these days: On a 10-city tour with the rest of the cast of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s fractured fairy tale musical “Into the Woods,” just as his union was authorized to call a strike during an impasse over new contract negotiations.

If a strike happens — and Creel remains hopeful it won’t come to that — all Broadway tours would stop. Negotiations are set to resume next week over touring contracts between Actors’ Equity Association, representing performers and stage managers, and The Broadway League of theater owners and producers, Playbill.com reported.

Next week also is when “Into the Woods” comes to Charlotte at Belk Theater with its direct-from-Broadway cast intact, including Montego Glover as The Witch, husband-and-wife Stephanie J. Block and Sebastian Arcelus as The Baker’s Wife and The Baker, and David Patrick Kelly as the Narrator/Mysterious Man.

How rare is it for an entire Broadway cast to go on the road once the show closes? “This isn’t official, but I’ve been told this is the first time that has happened since the ‘30s,” Creel said. “It feels very special.”

Creel has the dual role of Cinderella’s Prince and the Wolf. While in Charlotte, the show will be a homecoming of sorts for Creel, 46, an Ohio native whose sister lives in the Ballantyne area and parents live near Asheville.

Creel spoke with The Charlotte Observer this week about his life on tour, the contract dispute, memories of Sondheim and what comes next for him.

Kibbitzing over Doritos

Creel has spent a lot of time on tour as well as on Broadway.

He won a Tony award in 2017 for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical as Cornelius Hackl in the “Hello Dolly” revival led by Bette Midler. Creel also received Tony nominations for his work in “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” (his first Broadway show no less, back in 2002) and for “Hair” in 2009.

And he’s toured in such shows as “The Book of Mormon” and “Flashdance.”

“Into the Woods” tells the story of a handful of new and classic fairy tale characters, and what happens after they seemingly get their “happily ever afters.”

Creel said the mix of Broadway vets and talented newcomers in the cast hasn’t missed a step since launching the tour in February, a month after the show closed on Broadway. That fosters a lot of camaraderie, which carries over to the performances.

“There’s no shifting of gears. There’s no learning who everyone is. It’s continuing where we left off,” he said. “When you have people you love and know and trust from the beginning, you’re able to take bigger risks and dig into the material even more.

“The audiences are getting to see people at the top of their game freely playing. And that’s what the show benefits from.”

Creel, as Cinderella’s prince, and Block share just one memorable moment in the woods. But, he said, they have plenty of fun onstage and off.

After their lone scene ends, and other characters take the stage, Block and Creel often would hang out for what they call “Doritos and dishing.”

“Once in a while, we’ll grab some Doritos and just sit and kibitz backstage like two Chatty Cathies,” Creel said. “It’s just that kind of friendship that can make the road, which can be a very lonely place, less” lonely.

Actor’s Equity union concerns

And it’s that time on the road that’s the focus of the union dispute.

The union has cited a trio of issues: increases in per diem rates to cover rising food and housing costs; sufficient coverage for stage managers and actors for when they can’t work because they are sick; and wage increases that reflect current economic conditions.

The old contract expired in February. It’s over a decade old, Creel said, and doesn’t deal with what people on tour are confronting today.

Creel said he is more than satisfied with his own contract, and “Into the Woods” management. And he stressed that he knows he and fellow actors are connecting with audiences while doing their dream jobs.

But they are also away from their homes and family for potentially months at a time while, in some cases “living out of a mini fridge, with no freezer, and a microwave” in a tiny hotel room and performing up to eight shows a week. “That’s not a sustainable way of life,” he said.

Creel said his nearly three decades in the industry affords him the ability to speak out, where younger actors voiced fears of being fired if they do. So he took to Instagram recently to highlight the issues and encourage fellow union members to tell their stories, or he’d be glad to share them.

“I think what’s happening is the league is listening to negotiators who aren’t on the road,” Creel said. “They’re thinking of us as concepts and not as actual people.”

He hopes that will change by respectfully sharing their stories and concerns, both online and potentially in front of theaters where touring shows are playing. That may include Charlotte too, Creel added.

“We’re just gonna keep talking until hopefully we get a deal,” he said. “I’m confident that we will get a deal and not have to strike.”

Family ties in North Carolina

While in Charlotte, Creel said he’s looking forward to getting together with his sister, Allyson Creel, and her wife.

“I’m always happy whenever I get a chance to come to town to see them and see their three beautiful dogs,” Gavin Creel said. “She’s made an amazing life in Charlotte.”

His sister co-founded and is assistant head of school at Keystone Montessori School in the Sedgefield neighborhood off South Boulevard. And Creel’s parents live in Swannanoa in western Carolina; they’ll be in town for the show, too. He can’t wait.

Memories of Sondheim

“Into the Woods” is not Creel’s first association with Sondheim, the late theater giant who died in 2021.

The first time Creel met Sondheim was during an audition for the revival of his show “Follies.” Creel recalled going into the audition in disbelief that the man he so admired for so long would be sitting in on it. Sondheim listened intently and complimented Creel’s work, even though he didn’t get the role.

‘Sorry-grateful’: 10 things I miss and admire about theater titan Stephen Sondheim

Their paths crossed again a couple years later in 2003 in the out-of-town tryout for Sondheim’s “Bounce,” a troubled show that never made it to Broadway. Creel learned a lot just watching Sondheim and another theater icon, director Hal Prince, try to puzzle out ways to fix the production.

It was very humbling, Creel said, to watch those top artists deal with the problems of the show rather than simply coast on their reputations.

Creel described Sondheim as a calm, quirky genius.

One time after a “Bounce” performance, Sondheim and Creel got to talking about the Oscar-winning movie adaptation of the musical “Chicago.” Sondheim figured that movie musicals wouldn’t stick around. “He said ‘Chicago’ was the exception to the rule because it was a fantasy.”

Flash forward several years later. Creel’s in London playing Bert in “Mary Poppins,” and gets an email from Sondheim asking, “OK, do you want to go to the premiere” for the film version of Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd.”

What’s next for Gavin Creel

Ask Creel about his plans after “Into the Woods” and his answer involves the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The New York museum commissions work from writers, performers and others to come up with an idea inspired by something in the building. Creel sheepishly admitted he never had been to the Met before a couple museum officials approached him about the program in 2019.

That ultimately resulted in a musical he wrote called “Walk on Through: Confessions of a Museum Novice.”

“The project actually saved my life during the pandemic, because I kinda lost everything, my career, a relationship, my dog. And I got COVID and I was living alone,” he said. “But I had this one project ... that I just kept writing and working on and trying to find its story.”

He hopes to have a deal with a theater soon to do a production of it in the fall. “My dream is to transfer it to Broadway next spring then tour it around the world.”

And back out on the road.

Into the Woods

Where: Belk Theater, 130 N. Tryon St., Charlotte

When: April 11-16

Ticket info: blumenthalarts.org

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