Sara Bareilles Honors Gavin Creel on His First Birthday Since His Death

• Sara Bareilles honored late friend Gavin Creel’s birthday by sharing a message on Instagram Friday, April 18
• “I feel you still because everyone you loved is reaching out to everyone you loved in your name today,” wrote Bareilles, who starred with Creel on Broadway
• Creel died at 48 in September 2024 from a rare and aggressive form of cancer called sarcoma

Sara Bareilles is honoring her late friend and Broadway star Gavin Creel on his birthday.

On Friday, April 18, Bareilles, 45 shared a photo of Creel on Instagram as she wrote that many of his loved ones have spent the day getting in touch with each other in his memory.

“Happy Birthday. I feel you still because everyone you loved is reaching out to everyone you loved in your name today,” Bareilles wrote in the caption. “It’s a beautiful ritual. You’re beyond words and I thank the Universe again and again I knew you. I love you always.”

Creel was a celebrated songwriter, singer and actor who died at age 48 from a rare and aggressive form of cancer called sarcoma in September 2024.

A number of celebrities and stars from the Broadway community, including Beanie Feldstein, Busy Phillipps, and Benj Pasek, left comments showing support for Bareilles and appreciation for Creel on his birthday. Feldstein wrote, “happy birthday to the best of the best.”

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Creel was a three-time Tony Award nominee who won the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a musical for Hello, Dolly! In 2017. 

Aside from Bareilles and Creel’s off-stage friendship, the pair performed together in various iterations of Bareilles’ musical Waitress over the years and in the 2022 Broadway revival of Into the Woods.

After Creel’s death in September, Bareilles shared a photo of the two posing with their tongues out on Instagram and wrote, “Forever and ever and ever and ever I will love you and try to be more like you. You were loving and beloved,” in a tribute.

In March, Jonathan Groff — another one of Creel’s close friends in the Broadway community — referenced Bareilles when he recalled a moment from Creel’s memorial service during an appearance on The Broadway Show.

“That memorial was so insanely beautiful,” he said, adding that Bareilles said during the service, “‘Everything that we do today, any way that we try to honor Gavin, it will never be enough because he was just infinity in his life.’ ” 

Other friends of Creel’s from the Broadway community, including Andrew Rannells, also took to Instagram to mark Creel’s birthday April 18. “Happy Birthday to our sweet Gavin. I miss him every day,” Rannells, 46, wrote in a caption to his post, which featured photos of the pair hanging out with friends.