[5][2] Butel was part of the original cast of the Australian production of Avenue Q in 2009, playing the roles of two puppet characters, Princeton and Rod.
[21] He directed the winning play of the 2016 Lysicrates Prize for New Australian Playwriting, Mary Rachel Brown's Approximate Balance.
Alexander Lewis played Candide, Annie Aitken was Cunegonde, and veteran actress Caroline O'Connor took the part of The Old Lady.
[citation needed] In March 2019 Butel was appointed artistic director of State Theatre Company South Australia (STCSA),[26] taking over from Geordie Brookman.
[11] He oversaw a project called Decameron 2.0, a collaboration between STCSA and ActNow Theatre consisting of a series of 10 stories written, directed and acted by a diverse group of local talent.
[29][30] In September–October 2022, Butel acted in The Normal Heart, a play set in the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s in New York City,[31] in an STCSA production directed by Dean Bryant.
[38] In May 2011, Butel made his Opera Australia debut in the Gilbert and Sullivan production The Mikado where he played the comedic role of Ko-Ko.
[40][41] Later in 2013, Butel performed the part of Luther Billis in Bartlett Sher's production of South Pacific for Opera Australia.
[42] Killing Time is a live album Butel recorded during the Adelaide Cabaret Festival in 2010, and consists of songs with a time-related theme, as well as poetry and anecdotes.