Gavin Creel

Congratulations on this new gig!
Thanks. It's a nice time in my life to do something totally new.

Are you feeling homesick?
People ask that. They say, "Are you homesick? Are you lonely?" I'm like, no. It's not like I don't love my friends, who mean everything to me at home; I have amazing friends. But this is so exciting for me, and I've got my work cut out; I don't have time to be lonely.

What has your London routine been like so far?
When I first got here, I was living in a hotel and I had four or five days with no rehearsal because I needed to get over jet lag. I was going to start rehearsals on June 19, and those were the hardest days: I was leaving people for a year. But, you know, the minute rehearsals started, I thought, you know what? I've got other things to think about—like being the only new person coming into the Poppins company. [Other cast changes will take place in the autumn.] I had auditioned in New York obviously, and had extensive call backs, and then I heard that they were looking for an American counterpart to Gavin Lee who could either do the show in America or who could come here so Gavin could do it there [which he will, when the Broadway production hits New York in October]. Now that I'm here, I have of course met Gavin, and he's about the coolest person you could ever meet. It could have been awkward, but he's been so gracious; he made it so easy. But it could have been a million different things.

Still, the sequence of events must have been surprising.
I had never ever considered the fact that there would be a London opportunity; I thought it was over. So when they said, "Oh, it's not over; we're wanting to know if you would be willing to come to London," I was, like, Excuse me? I hung up the phone and thought about it and said to myself that I had turned 30 [on April 18, the day of his second audition] and it's all about life opportunities, and I thought, screw the career. This is a career opportunity whether I do it here or in Zimbabwe or Australia or wherever. It was just about seeing things differently now that I'm 30: slow down, enjoy the moment. I never thought I would have the opportunity to come to another country. It's been a total blessing.

Who knows? Maybe you'll end up staying here—as many Americans do.
It's funny. I haven't closed off the possibility that I may be here for two decades. I'm living in the second, living in the moment. I'm happy; I'm hungry.

Gavin Creel in Mary Poppins

Recount for us how you got this job.
I was living in L.A. at the time, where I had gone for pilot season last year and just stayed; my parents had loaned me their minivan, which was a total adventure—one of those things you dream about doing: driving across the country, which is how you learn that America is so unbelievably vast! I got the phone call that there was the possibility of further callbacks, and I went to Michigan to do a concert, and I was there with my voice teacher when the call came through: "Would you be willing to go to London?" It was sort of like reorganising your entire life, but it didn't jibe for me with L.A. this trip and I had thought, if I don't get Mary Poppins, I will move back to New York for sure. So when I got the phone call that Gavin Lee was going to come and do the show on Broadway, I thought, I'm just going to go back and plan accordingly. So it took a lot of fast thinking: I had a van full of stuff in L.A. that I had to put into storage and I left stuff with my parents, who now live in the North Carolina mountains, near Asheville. I got to spend time with them, and my sisters in Charlotte and Salt Lake City, so I touched base with everybody.

And you've been able to stay in touch?
Oh, yeah, through the miracle of Skype; if I could be a spokesperson for it, I would be; it’s amazing. That's how my songwriting partner, Robbie, and I write our songs, and I'm not leaving this country until our second and third albums are finished. We really want to get the music going over here. Robbie's going to come over in the fall and we want to get the band over and do a big rock show—call Elton John and tell him to come out.

Just be prepared for lots of requests from people to sleep on your floor.
[Laughs.] I've told my friends I'm not a hostel, though I'm sure I'll get phone calls [raises his voice], "Oh, Gavin. Remember me?" But I'm old enough to stick up for myself now—even though I do have this unbelievable flat in Covent Garden, a seven-minute walk from the theatre.

Are you surviving the heat?
I hate it. [Laughs.] Where's the air conditioning, people? The theatres are not air conditioned! I am without a doubt the sweatiest man in show biz, but I'm coming to terms with it. I'm falling in love with my sweaty self—it's like, you know what? I drip; let's drip together.

Whereas in New York, many Britons usually think the theatres are too cold.
It is cold in those theatres. But I'm the guy in short sleeves and shorts going, “It's hot in here!" Maybe it's that my blood is thinning or thickening, or whatever.

Have you seen your own show in London?
I've seen Poppins twice and won't go again unless somebody says, “We really need you to see it again.” I followed Gavin around backstage, and the thing is, he's so good, I don't want to mimic him. And I don't want them just to direct me to do it a certain way, which is counter-productive to my process. I get in my way enough trying to find my own things, so I don't want to get into mimicking the person or deliberately doing the opposite because that doesn't come from an organic place.

It's a fantastic story—the saga that got you from New York to here.
The sexiest part for me is that this is a brand new show, and here I am a small part of the world of something that, I think, is going to go on and on and on, I hope; I hope Poppins has a big splash in New York and that, if it does, it's about passing the torch from a Gavin to a Gavin. It's an honour that I'm only the second person to do it and that the original guy is going to New York.

Aden Gillett & Gavin Creel in Mary Poppins

Is your understudy called Gavin?
He's Howard [laughs], though maybe his middle name is Gavin.

Have you been renting the original Disney film?
I haven't seen the film since I was seven or eight: again, it's the mimicking thing. I wanted to be able to approach the show based on what they wrote, because I sort of feel this is its own thing. I think what's sexy to me as far as the storytelling goes is that you're dealing with a screwed up family that is confronted with the most common problem: a father who sort of neglects them; all that resonates more powerfully now more than ever. Yes, it's old-fashioned in the sense within the show that children are meant to be seen and not heard, but I've seen that happen today, and I like that it's real frustration from Mr. Banks and that Mrs. Banks really is trying to hold the house together. I love, too, that I get to talk to the audience; it's as if I need the story to be told, and I need it to be told tonight to these people, and I love that: something' s happening, and you're all here, so there's magic. I can feel it.

What do you make of Bert, who can be very mysterious?
For me, it's that you have to justify what you're doing up there, especially when you're talking to the aud and narrating them through the piece; you sort of have this magical personality, and yet not totally magical personality like Mary Poppins because for me the show is all about her; it's as if it has been a long time since I've seen her, and I have my thing of who she is, so it's, like, let's hold to her as much as we can for the next stretch of time. Let's keep her here—it's sort of like life support, where somebody goes and is then unconscious and then they're gone. [Laughs.] Though I'm not trying to liken Mary Poppins to dying and life support.

Is it a challenge?
I've never been more challenged in my career so far; this is by far the hardest thing I've done, and I'm so glad I've had it. Some shows I get, I think, I can do his, but this has taken me completely out of my comfort zone—I'm in a strange place doing totally new things hanging upside down, speaking in a new dialect. It's unnerving but at the same time you do as much work as you can. You think, screw it, you're never going out there and giving 70%. [Laughs.] I'm dripping it out, and they've all been very keen and supportive. [Lapses into Cockney.] "Who's this Yank? Who's this fucking Yank?"

Ah yes, the accent. So are you eating, sleeping and breathing Cockney?
For me honestly— it's different for everyone—but for me, people are like, shall we talk to you in Cockney offstage, and I think, no, that will screw me up more than anything. Anyway, it's musculature: I've talked one way for 30 years and now I have I have to talk another, so it's about getting your lips and teeth and everything around it. I just worked on the lines by rote, trying it a million different ways. I've been reading books and am constantly talking; I'm that crazy person on the street, cursing in American and talking Cockney. When I heard the show was coming about a year and a half before, I bought a CD at the Drama Bookshop on West 41st Street. I'm not at a place where I can just have a conversation and get all the sounds right, but when you read a book, you hear the sounds in your head. You don't realise what your brain hears even when no one is speaking. It's a little more stressful for me now that I'm in the actual country where the show takes place. But the great thing is that when I have to do it, I go for it; I can't pussyfoot around or be timid about it, or I'll l turn into a leprechaun. As it is now, I feel I’m in a really good place.

Have you ever done an English accent before?
When I was in college [the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor], we did a Noel Coward revue, and that was standard RP. But it's good being in musicals in that we hear a musicality to speaking, but you don't want is for the audience to hear you concentrating on the dialect. We don't want people to say, "He's got a good accent," we want them to say, "We love Bert." I want it to be a non-issue. I want people who don't know who I am not to know—which will be 100% of the audience over here, where nobody knows who the hell I am, and I didn't say it in my bio. I've just said that I've worked in the States. But the thing is, you want to be told the story, and that's my main importance; that's part of my learning curve. The other scary thing I'm not afforded a preview period or tech period. Well, let it roll, come hell or high water.

Tell us about "Step In Time" [Bert's show-stopping number in the second act.]
I was doing it all day today, and it's hard: a real balancing act. You turn upside down and when you're tapping, all the blood is gone from your toes. There are only two wires on the side of you, but you can't press against the wall; you have to make it look as if you're walking while pressing against the wall but the second you sing, it sounds like all this blood is in your throat. [Laughs.] The neat thing is I'm not scared.

Do you suffer from vertigo?
It's not too bad though I do get carsick easily. I've been in the harness all day and once they told me the wires they're using could lift a house, it was OK, and so I put on this harness that was like wearing a big diaper, with metal hooks. They check it 19 times, but once I'm in it, I don't consider the fact: today was the first time I did it with actual lights; I could see the opposite wall and the cast all lit and looking up at me. The number is seven or eight minutes long, but you're on the proscenium for 40 seconds. When I first saw it, I was like shit, this is going to be a blast. My first reaction was, I can't wait to do that; now I have to learn how.

Have you been to London before?
I was here 10 years ago this fall, in 1996 when I was 20. I came over to the Holborn Centre for the Performing Arts through a programme from Marymount College in New York, where they hire a bunch of RADA tutors to come to this building and teach a bunch of students. We studied acting for four months. There were 40 students altogether, and I saw 35 shows. My favourite was Swan Lake and I was so excited when I met Matthew (co-director and choreographer Matthew Bourne) on Mary Poppins to sit down and tell him that. We also saw The Beauty Queen of Leenane in previews, which blew me away and The White Devil in Stratford. Oh, and Shopping and Fucking: I was like, what the hell is going on right now? We saw [Harold Pinter's] Ashes to Ashes, with Lindsay Duncan and Stephen Rea, but I was drunk the night before and was so bored. I thought, I don't get it and I'm so tired, but I was too bored to fall asleep. I was like some cranky bad theatregoer, and we were in this cramped theatre when I've got legs that go on for days. I felt like the biggest American musical theatre dork: I was, like, somebody give me a show tune, tap it up.

How tall are you?
I’m 6'1'', and I've huge hands, big feet and a lanky big head, so there I will be gumbying all over the stage, though Gavin Lee is a touch taller even than me. I think Bert has got to be physical, but I don't know that he has to be tall. He does have to have a self effacing quality in that whatever he has to do to tell the story he'll tell it: as chimney sweep or lamplighter, however he can be there to tell the story, he'll tell it. I sort of see him doing all these jobs for the storytelling; I think he lives in a semi-magical place also, but that for this beautiful two hours of time that we're telling this story, the only person that can resolve it is Mary Poppins. Bert is sort of like this conduit to the family and her: the family is directly touched by her, so the fact that she lets me be part of the story even for a second is the sweetest treacle on earth.

Thoroughly Modern Millie co-stars Gavin Creel & Sutton Foster

It helps to have a sprightly leading lady [in Scarlett Strallen].
I love Scarlett and cannot wait to do the show with her. She's just got a light—a great light—in her, and it's so easy to go, there she is; I had a similar feeling with Sutton [Foster] when I did Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Where did you live in London a decade ago?
I was in Little Venice, near Warwick Avenue tube stop, and all of us were in the same beautiful white building on a short let. I hadn't been back here in 10 years, and it was so great to come back and go, oh yeah. In the meantime, I've sublet my New York apartment on 45th and Ninth to a great guy right Midtown. I have a brilliant landlady who's unbelievable, but I don't want to live on Ninth Ave: it's so friggin' loud. I have Lincoln Tunnel traffic on Friday that makes me want to throw my air conditioner at the cars.

Could you see yourself doing more straight plays?
I loved doing The Mystery Plays [at Second Stage two summers ago]; it was a challenge and the first major play I've done. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa wrote it, and it was an unbelievable play, paying no money, but it's rare that you are sent a script where you think, I can do this like nobody else can. I was worried they were going to think, you're a music theatre actor, but they did cast me. And when I was doing it, I loved it but I missed music; I couldn't just become a straight actor. The thing is, I love music, but I hate bad musical theatre; I don't think there's anything I hate more. On the other hand, it's so easy to poo poo on musical theatre: it's not opera, it's not straight acting, that's not real acting, whereas opera people are like, that's not real singing, and the dancing world is like, that's not ballet. But I am hard pressed to find an art form that when it's done right there is nothing more emotionally moving than great musical theatre: everything is combining to tell story in an artful, simple way.