Actress became allergic to audience member’s perfume while on stage

“I was so thrilled that they felt they could trust me with a heavy drama,” Leeves said. “I was sort of like, ‘Are you sure you’ve got the right person here?’ But I know that they were looking to mix up tones on the show a bit, and then when they described the character to me it was so different from anything I’d ever done.

“All the characters I’ve played before have been sort of workingclass, funny, all about personal relationships. And this is a wildly successful professional woman who is 90% work and 10% personal life — if she has a flaw, that’s her flaw.

“But she is a really good surgeon, a really good human being, and she doesn’t mince words, which I love. She kills with kindness, she’s graceful and confident and she doesn’t take anyone’s guff.”

“Frasier” is the show that put Leeves on the map, and in recent months there have been occasional rumblings of a revival. But without John Mahoney — who died in 2018 — it just wouldn’t be the same, she said: “It’s not ‘Frasier’ if it’s not all of us. It has to be something else.”

Her resume also includes a three-month run on Broadway in “Cabaret” as Sally Bowles in 2002. One night there was a snafu and that’s the story that came to mind when asked about a worst moment in her career.

Before explaining further, she offered up this important piece of information: “I have terrible allergies.”

My worst moment …

“This was during a hiatus between seasons of ‘Frasier’ and it was a big, big deal for me. I was so excited to be doing ‘Cabaret’ on Broadway.

“One particular performance, I remember I was doing the scene where I was trying to seduce Cliff to allow me to move in with him. It’s a lot of, ‘Cliff, dahling …’ And I when walked on stage I realized somebody in the front row is wearing this heavy, heavy scent — perfume — and all of a sudden I lose my voice. I sound like a mix between Harvey Fierstein and Gollum (starts imitating the sound). It’s really not sexy!

“And I was absolutely terrified. What do I do? How do I get out of this? Do I just leave the stage? Do I say, ‘I’m terribly sorry, I can’t go on?’

“But you don’t want to be that dramatic and ruin it for everybody. And this is pretty early on in the play; we still had a lot to do.

“I could see the look of confusion on the faces of the audience and my costar’s look of terror. And then I see the horrified faces of people appearing in the wings off-stage because they knew I was going to have to sing in a minute. And I’m thinking, what the hell am I going to do?

“We were at a part in the play where I have a hangover and I’m supposed to make a Prairie Oyster: I pull out a raw egg and crack it into a mug and mix it around with some Worcestershire sauce. Usually I didn’t swallow it — they had a fake cup, so it looks like you’ve swallowed it, but you haven’t — but in that moment I thought the only thing I can do is swallow this raw egg.

“So I did and it worked! I started to talk normal! And I could see my co-star start to breathe again. The terror went out of his eyes.

“But I could still see the look of horror on everyone’s faces in the audience — even on a normal night they would gasp when I drank it because they were like, ‘That’s disgusting!’ And every other night I wasn’t really drinking it — but that night I had to bite the bullet and chug it down. And for days I was so afraid I was going to get sick because of salmonella or whatever, but I was fine.”

It was an allergic reaction to the perfume that affected Leeves’ voice?

“Oh yeah, definitely. And that’s a lesson to people when they go to the theater: Don’t wear overpowering scents. I know I’m so sensitive to that.

“I used to try to have lilacs in the house because I love lilacs, and then I’d be sitting talking to someone and all of sudden I’d sound like (imitates the sound) and I’d be like, ‘I’m terribly sorry. Let me put these outside.’ Sometimes I’ve walked into a department store where they’re spraying perfume at you and I’m like, ‘Please don’t!’

“It really just catches in my throat. You try to cough and you sound like an ogre, and that night the audience was staring at me like, is this part of the show? Because my voice changed suddenly and drastically; they couldn’t make heads or tails of it. And the actor who was opposite me, I could see the terror in his eyes, like what the hell is happening — and how to do we solve this?

“I think the egg yoke just opened everything up again and lubricated my throat. All I could taste was the Worcestershire sauce, but it got rid of whatever that thing that was in the back of my throat. So at least I was thinking on my feet.”

The takeaway …

“It must have been a particular brand of perfume or something because strangely enough it didn’t happen again during the run. But I always thought, let’s just have some water around just in case, so I had a plan. So what I learned was (to) be prepared and stay in the moment.

“I wish I had said something (in character) about it when it happened — like, ‘I have a little frog in my throat. This will help’ — just sort of improvised something and made it part of the thing before I drank that egg. It would have been hilarious! And instead people were wondering, ‘What the hell … ?’

“Afterwards I did admit to the (props) guy who handled all that. I said, ‘I actually drank it.’ And he said, ‘I know! But don’t worry, the egg was fresh.’

And we had this whole conversation: ‘When did you get the eggs? Were they in the fridge? Yes, they were in the fridge? Oh good.’ Because you should never eat raw eggs.

“But I did. And I lived to sing another day.”