Before she achieved international fame as Mrs. Patmore, the crusty but lovable cook in the megahit British television series “Downton Abbey,” Lesley Nicol was a widely admired British stage actress. She had big roles in West End musicals like “Mamma Mia!” and “Blood Brothers” and did turns in everything from Bertolt Brecht to William Shakespeare. A solid career in the theater that, it’s fair to say, is unbeknown to U.S. fans of “Downton.”
As a result, Nicol’s new autobiographical solo show “How the Hell Did I Get Here?” at the Greenhouse Theater Center goes well beyond the usual celebrity retrospective. A modest, kindhearted and warm-centered presence on stage, Nicol not only can draw on her decades of experience in front of a live audience but she can sing, too. And rather than just pulling old audition songs from her trunk, she’s commissioned a composer, Mark Mueller, to write a suite of charming, original numbers, all with lyrics directly relevant to the life story Nicol wants to tell. Mueller accompanies her on piano.
The piece is brand new and you can, at times, tell. But Nicol already has her audience firmly on her side as she charts her first-person trajectory from an ordinary, geeky childhood in the industrial city of Manchester, England (a disclosure: I grew up there, too) to a London career with ups and some big downs, to a late-in-life victory in the lottery of character-actress life, landing on a costume-drama franchise that blew up all over the world.
“Downton” fans, for sure, will have a lovely time. But Nicol’s show will also resonate with young stage performers, or anyone in what is known as “the business,” being as it is a story of resilience and perseverance in an industry not known for its decent treatment of women. Here you have a short-of-stature woman over 60 proudly starring in her own show, but also striving to make this not just a story of her own achievement but a piece resonant to others. I sniffled my way through a good portion of it, although you’ll perhaps have to take that with a pinch of salt, given my personal connection to the era and the material.
I think Nicol could add a bit more “Downton” gossip for the fans, although I understand her desire to limit that cheaper stuff. And the steep set causes her some difficulties that aren’t necessary. But those are small problems: once the “Downton” movie P.R. machine cranks up in May and this show hits New York at the same time, it will do very well, as it would in the U.K., of course.
I’ve seen a lot of these kinds of shows in my life as a critic: few have this level of self-awareness and emotional resonance. By now, Nicol has lost both of her parents. But they loom large over her show and we walk out understanding her biggest sadness: they were there for her struggles, but neither of them were around to see everything come good for her.
In this, as in so much else, Nicol is like so many of us.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
Review: “How the Hell Did I Get Here?”
When: Through April 3
Where: Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave.
Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes
Tickets: $30-$89 at 774-404-7336 and www.greenhousetheater.org