She joined, soon after its formation, the company at the Theatre Royal, subsequently known as Drury Lane, and was accordingly one of the first women to appear on the English stage.
She joined the King's Company about 1670 and played many important roles in the 1670s, including Benzayda in John Dryden's The Conquest of Granada (December 1670 and January 1671), and probably Rosalinda in Nathaniel Lee's Sophonisba (3 April 1675).
Edmund Curll described Boutell in The History of the English Stage (1741), a work supposedly based on the notes of the famous actor Thomas Betterton, who was the King's Company's de facto manager in the 1670s: A very considerable Actress; she was low of Stature, had very agreeable Features, a good Complexion, but a Childish Look.
Her Voice was weak, tho' very mellow; she generally acted the young, innocent Lady whom all the Heroes are mad in Love with; she was a Favourite of the Town.A well-known story holds that, having for the character of Statira obtained from the property-man a veil to which Mrs. Barry, who played Roxana, thought herself entitled, an argument ensued between the two actresses, and Mrs. Barry dealt so forcible a blow with a dagger as to pierce through Mrs. Boutel's stays, and inflict a wound a quarter of an inch in length.
During her active and busy career in the 1670s, she was according to the Biographical Dictionary of Actors generally considered a "very talented, popular, beautiful, and promiscuous young woman".