Stars from Broadway and ‘Downton Abbey’ set to perform with Tabernacle Choir

A Broadway leading man and one of the actors from “Downton Abbey” will help The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square with its annual Christmas concerts.

The choir announced Friday that Broadway singer Michael Maliakel and actor Lesley Nicol will be the featured guest artists for the Christmas concerts, set for Dec. 14, 15 and 16 at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City.

Mack Wilberg, the choir’s music director, said in a news release the choir was “delighted to have the talents of Michael Malaikel and Lesley Nicol at this year’s Christmas concerts. Together they will bring the holiday spirit into the hearts of our audiences through music and word celebrating the joy that is found in family and the celebration of the Savior’s birth.”

Maliakel is starring on Broadway, in the title role of Disney’s “Aladdin.” He recently was featured in two PBS concert specials: “Broadway’s Brightest Lights,” alongside Broadway singer Megan Hilty, and “An Evening With Lerner and Loewe.”

Nicol is familiar to fans of the “Downton Abbey” franchise as Mrs. Beryl Patmore, the motherly head cook of the Crawley family’s estate. She has had a long career, mostly in British TV and movies. (Nicol isn’t the first “Downton Abbey” star to appear with the choir; Hugh Bonneville, Lord Crawley himself, narrated at the 2017 concerts.)

Tickets to the Christmas concerts are free to the public but are required. Tickets — four to a household, which is an expansion of past policy — will be given out through a random selection process. People seeking tickets can register for the drawing from noon Tuesday, Oct. 24, through 11:59 p.m. Friday, Nov. 3. Go to tabchoir.org/Chrismastickets for details.

Admission is open to those age 8 and older. The number of tickets will be limited, because of the continued construction in and around Temple Square.

Maliakel, Nicol and the choir also will perform for the weekly “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcast, on Sunday, Dec. 17, at 9:30 a.m. Tickets are not required for that performance.

The taped version of last year’s Tabernacle Choir Christmas show, “Season of Light” — featuring singer Lea Salonga and actor Sir David Suchet along with the choir, orchestra and the Bells at Temple Square — will air on PBS on Dec. 12. CD and DVD versions of that concert will be released by the choir’s own recording label, as will an illustrated book based on the narration.