You know her from ‘Downton Abbey’: Lesley Nicol will debut her life story at the Greenhouse in Chicago
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Before she found fame as the beloved cook Mrs. Patmore (actually Beryl Patmore) on the global hit “Downton Abbey,” the British actress Lesley Nicol was a longtime stage performer, appearing in everything from “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” to “Blood Brothers” and “Mamma Mia!” After various pandemic postponements, her solo show “How the Hell Did I Get Here?” has its world premiere in Chicago next week at the Greenhouse Theater Center before moving to New York for a further run.
The musical autobiography is by Nicol and Mark Mueller, directed by Luke Kernaghan and presented by Pemberley Productions. Nicol spoke over a drink at the Summer House in Lincoln Park, the following is edited from a longer conversation.
Q: When it comes to “Downton Abbey,” what do you get asked the most? What are you most sick of hearing?
A: There are two questions I get the most. One is “did you know it was going to be such a success?” and the second is “can you cook?”
Q: And the answers?
A: The answer to the first one is “no.” The answer to the second used to be “no,” but I’ve gone a bit vegan so now I am cooking more. But you wouldn’t have wanted to eat any of the food you saw me cook on the show. It would have tasted terrible. (Sticks out tongue.)
Q: I think that “Downton Abbey” was such a huge global success because it’s about flawed but fundamentally decent people doing their best.
A: Yes. Julian Fellowes (the show’s creator) used to say something like that to us all the time.
Q: You must have had a real bout with invasive fame.
A: People don’t usually recognize me at all until they hear my voice. But I am very close with Sophie (McShera, who played Daisy). And that’s real, not showbiz (expletive). She calls me her telly mummy. I think the worst tsunami of fame I’ve ever experienced was when the two of us went together to see the musical “Once” on Broadway. I think it was because we were together and it started on the walk to the theater. Sophie said, “look left, the gays are on to us.” And there was this big crowd of gay men all going, “Look! It’s Daisy and Mrs. Patmore.”
A 160 million people in China watched the show. I was recognized by a Chinese farmer in a field. The show was huge in Israel. And Hillary Clinton told me that the Clintons watched the show every Sunday night as a family on PBS. She hugged me. “Oh my God, she said, “my husband loves it.”
Q: Quite a shift in life. But you seem so incredibly nice. I always think that’s more likely when people become famous when older.
A: I used to be an autograph hunter when I was 12 or 13 and I remember how every actor treated me when I met them. I could tell you who was nice and who was terrible. You put yourself in a very vulnerable position when you go up to someone. I know what that feels like.
Q: Classy cast, that ‘Downton” crew.
A: I mean, just to be in something with that level of actors? Maggie Smith? I’d never done that level of telly before. I had done “Casualty.” I was just praying that we would be half as well-received as “Brideshead Revisited.”
But I am glad this happened. I was working with a very decent bunch of people. We told the kids in the show that this woudn’t happen to them every time, so enjoy it while it lasts and don’t be brats. And they weren’t. The last day of filming was incredibly emotional for all of us.
The success allowed us to do work for charities: I got involved with the animal welfare world. It is nice that an actor is able to make such a positive difference in the world. I got to go to a bear sanctuary in China and I was treated like family.
Q: And you got to play a great character.
Remember that Mrs. Patmore was very angry all the time in the beginning? But when Julian began to see that Sophie and I were a great double act, and could be funny, he began to write for that.
Q: We both grew up around Manchester, England. What were you like when you were young?
I was crippled with shyness. Like a lot of actors, as you probably know. That was why I needed to be on the stage. But I did a lot of plays in the late 1970s in all those wonderful theaters in Manchester, like the Library Theatre, the Contact Theatre. Such wonderful actors. You could see Ian McKellen. You probably did.
Q: I saw many of those shows. I had no idea you were in so many of them. I don’t even knew you were a singer.
I am not a singer. I am not Bernadette Peters. I am an actor who sings. But there are 10 original songs in my show. The composer, Mark Mueller, is incredible. And he’s here, playing piano.
Q: People will be fascinating by your life.
Really? This was never meant to be the Lesley Nicols Show. I want it to be something that will make people examine their own journey. Just the story of an ordinary human being, with all of the highs and the lows.
Q: One last embarrassing question. At the end of the first ‘Downton’ movie, it seemed like they were leaving the door open for Maggie Smith to leave. Please tell me the Dowager Countess didn’t die before the new movie starts (”Downton Abbey: A New Era” is slated for a May release.)
Don’t worry. She’s there.
“How the Hell Did I Get Here?” runs through April 3 at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave.; www.greenhousetheater.org
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
