Tony winner Gavin Creel explores life in developing new show 'Walk on Through' at Hermitage retreat

Tony Award-winning Broadway star Gavin Creel is an actor, singer and songwriter who considers himself culturally aware. But he has been expanding his knowledge base developing a new show he wrote during a residency at the Hermitage Artist Retreat in Englewood.

Creel had been living in New York City for about 20 years and winning rave reviews – and sometimes Tony nominations – for such shows as “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” “La Cage aux Folles,” “Hair” and “Waitress.” He won a Tony starring with Bette Midler in a revival of “Hello, Dolly!”

But he was aware there was a gaping hole in his cultural resume. After all those years, he had never set foot in the Metropolitan Museum of Art until he was asked to create a show for the museum’s MetLiveArts program.

“I always figured museums were for people who were smarter than me, richer than me and more cultured than me, and my attention span  – I get bored really quickly,” he said in a telephone interview this week from his cottage at the Hermitage.

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Limor Tomer, the general manager of MetLiveArts who has worked with the Hermitage, asked Creel to create a show that explored his feelings about and the inspiration stirred by a visit to the museum.

The result was “Walk on Through,” a concert he presented at the Met in October, but which he wants to now develop into more of a theatrical project.

“This was such a joyful passion project that after I did it, I thought this can’t be the last step. I want to do this for a run on Broadway and take it around the world to theaters and museums, tell my story about art and life to anyone who would listen,” he said.

He will give Sarasota-area audiences a taste of what he’s been working on with a presentation of excerpts from “Walk on Through” at 5 p.m. Friday on the beach at the Hermitage in Englewood.

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The presentation comes just days after he had another dream come true, the airing of a PBS special. He was the opening act of three programs in the “Stars on Stage from Westport Country Playhouse,” which had its debut earlier this month.

“I’m really proud of it. I always through it would be neat to film a PBS special,” he said. “I grew up watching PBS and ‘Great Performances’ and I was just really excited by how it turned out.”

Now he’s spending his days walking miles along the beach on the Gulf, and staring at all the notecards on the corkboard in his cabin, throwing out some ideas and writing new pieces for “Walk on Through.”

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His experiences at the Met helped him realize there was a lot to be discovered and no reason to be feel intimidated.

“Just because its in the Metropolitan Museum doesn’t mean I have to like it or that it’s even good or that if I don’t get it, l must be stupid. All this is in the musical,” he said.

The show became an exploration of the life of a “gay man born in 1976 who grew up in the Midwest and felt for the majority of my childhood that I didn’t belong. When I started at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater and Dance, I was like an infant. I was just starting. I hate making people feel they don’t belong.”

During the pandemic, while some artists discovered new creative outlets, “I kind of lost any drive to be any part of the business. I sort of detached and didn’t engage. I had no interest in doing anything on the computer, doing Zoom concerts,” he said. “I did two or three and decided this does not bring me joy. The Met project was a lifeline for me and I’m not sure what I would have done without it. It was something to focus on and some way to be creative.”

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As he continues work on “Walk on Through,” he’s trying to stay open to new ideas.

“The last two years have been painful and healing. I’m trying to be as optimistic as I can and also realistic,” he said. “With ‘Walk on Through,’ the summary is in the title. That’s all you can do sometimes, is keep on walking.”

Gavin Creel

Performs excerpts of his project “Walk on Through” at 5 p.m. Friday on the Hermitage Artist Retreat Beach, 6660 Manasota Key Road, Englewood. The event is free but there is a $5 registration fee. To register: hermitageartistretreat.org

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