Gavin Creel Joins Broadway Cast of Hair; Eden Espinosa Drops Out

The forthcoming Broadway revival of Hair has signed on one leading actor and lost a leading lady: Tony Award nominee Gavin Creel has joined the cast as Claude, while previously announced star Eden Espinosa has withdrawn from the role of Sheila “due to personal reasons.” Hair is set to begin previews on March 6 at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre and will open on March 31, directed by Diane Paulus.

Creel takes on the role played first by Jonathan Groff and later by Christopher J. Hanke in last summer’s Central Park production of Hair. His signing and the withdrawal of Espinosa are just the latest wrinkles in production saga that saw Jeffrey Richards and Jerry Frankel step in last week as co-producers with the Public Theater, which presented the show in Central Park.

Creel was last seen on Broadway as Jean-Michel in the 2005 revival of La Cage aux Folles. He received a Best Actor Tony nomination for his performance as Jimmy in Thoroughly Modern Millie and appeared off-Broadway in Bat Boy. On the London stage, he played Bert in Mary Poppins. It was announced last March that Creel would play Jesus in a Broadway revival of Stephen Schwartz’s Godspell opening in summer 2008, but the production was cancelled.

Complete casting for Hair, described in the press release as a “$5.5 million production,” has not been announced. Will Swenson, who played Berger in Central Park, has been starring in the off-Broadway production of Rock of Ages, which is also headed to Broadway in March. Sheila was played in Central Park by Caren Lyn Manuel, who recently departed on the national tour of Rent.

Creel will make his first appearance on behalf of the show at a Hair-related TimesTalk event on January 11, joining a panel that includes composer Galt MacDermot and Public Theater artistic director Oscar Eustis. Creel is scheduled to sing a song from the show.