A Bermudian theatre actor discussed family life, meeting film star Robert Downey Jr and playing the crocodile in Peter Pan after appearing on the US daytime talk show Sherri.

Nicholas Christopher sat down with comedian and host Sherri Shepherd during the Monday edition of her show.

The actor, who is the son of Hamilton Town Crier Ed Christopher, opened up about the success of his most recent Broadway revival show, Chess, as well as his journey as an actor from school plays to now.

He told Ms Shepherd: “I did this one show, Peter Pan, because all my friends were doing it and I was so excited to do it because I figured we’ll all be Lost Boys together, we’ll be singing, we’ll be dancing together. And I was the one kid who didn’t get cast as a Lost Boy. I was cast as the crocodile.”

Of the costume, he added: “That thing was so heavy, it was like 80 pounds. I was sweating. Once you pulled the mask over I couldn’t see.

“They put me on a skateboard and they just would push me across the stage and I couldn’t see where I was going.

“There were times where I was almost going off the edge of the stage and I just had to sit backstage and watch all my friends have fun singing all the songs and flying and everything.

“But, I started from the bottom and now I’m here on the Sherri show.”

Mr Christopher has performed alongside theatre veterans Lea Michele and Aaron Tveit in Chess since it hit the stage in November.

The play explores a love triangle between an American chess grandmaster, his assistant and a Russian chess grandmaster during an international tournament in the middle of the Cold War.

Mr Christopher told the audience that he refused to read the play’s rave reviews for fear that he’d play into the audience’s favourite aspects and lose sight of the character.

He noted that Robert Downey Jr, known for his role as Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was one of several celebrity audience members who later visited him backstage.

Mr Christopher said: “He grabbed me by the shoulders and he said ‘you’re fantastic’.

“My mom happened to be there too and then all of a sudden these two wander off by themselves having a full conversation.”

Mr Christopher plays Anatoly Sergievsky in Chess, a stoic and tortured Russian master who falls for Florence Vassy, the second to Anatoly’s American opponent.

Ms Michele, who plays Florence, has been nominated for several Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards and is best known for her roles as Rachel Berry in the TV musical series Glee and Fanny Brice in the play Funny Girl.

Mr Tveit, who plays US grandmaster Freddie Trumper, is a Tony Award-winning actor and singer known for his lead roles as Christian in Moulin Rouge! and the title character in the 2023 revival of Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Mr Christopher performed alongside Mr Tveit in Sweeney Todd as the character Adolfo Pirelli before eventually playing the demon barber himself.

He has also played Aaron Burr and George Washington in the acclaimed musical Hamilton; Norman Whitfield and Smokey Robinson in Motown the Musical; and John Thomas in the modern opera Miss Saigon.