The interview is taking place in the Green Room at The Gatehouse which also doubles as the Ice Cream bar that operates during the intervals. The walls are covered in framed posters of musicals produced by Ovation (the in-house production company). There’s also a random drum kit in the corner which no doubt has its own story to tell. John makes an entrance with his usual energy and we’re straight into animated conversation.

SUMMER IN THE CITY is a jukebox show. “There are no pretensions” says John, “it’s way of putting together a bunch of great 60s songs.” The show covers the period from August ‘65 to August ‘67, finishing with the infamous ‘summer of love’.   John is a big fan of jukebox musicals. The first musical ever produced at The Gatehouse was FOREVER PLAID with music from the late 50s and early 60s. “It’s still one of my favourites” says John. “Another is RETURN TO THE FORBIDDEN PLANET written by the wonderful and sadly missed Bob Carlton.”

Image: Return to the Forbidden Planet (2018) Alex Fobbester – Captain Tempest / Lewys Taylor – Bud Visor/   Stephanie Hockley – Miranda  / Rhiannon Hopkins – Penny Scyllen. Photo: Darren Bell



Image: Forever Plaid (2021 - the third production at the venue) Alex Zane, Cameron Burt, George Crawford & Chris Short. Photo: Darren Bell



John's long association with music began with his mother who sang and played the piano in the house. “I know it’s a cliché” he says “but there was always music in our house”. His mother had been a singer with the big bands before WW2.  “She had a very sad war” explains John… “her first husband was killed in Italy and her mother was killed in the Blitz.”

“I discovered the kind of music I liked by listening to rock and roll” says John.  Like many youngsters of the period his first hero was Buddy Holly and John was able to re-live some of those fifty’s moments when he directed BUDDY at The Gatehouse in 2010.  Back to the sixties and John started playing drums (that’s his first kit, now sitting in this very room) with local bands.  Having actually lived through this period, he remembers lots of things first-hand which have fed into the story of SUMMER IN THE CITY.

Image: BUDDY with Jason Blackwater as Big Bopper / Roger Rowley as Buddy Holly / Jos Slovick as Richie Valens. Photo: Lucy

John was also a stage manager during the 60s, having trained at LAMDA.  He recalls: “It was in the days when you also had to take the one-line parts - we were called acting ASMs.”  He still remembers some of the lines from his rare theatrical roles.  He’s very much a performer rather than an actor, so his subsequent employment as an Entertainment Officer on cruise ships (Cunard liner QE2 was one) suited him very well.  It is here where he became immersed in musical theatre.  “We invented the musicals on board in those days” recalls John.  Today it is all very highly organised on shore before the production goes on the ship. John continues: “In the 70s and 80s we’d literally say 'let’s do a musical' and then go to a record store in Los Angeles, buy an album of a Broadway Show and give it to the ship’s musicians to learn.  Then we put a show together in couple of days, usually a shortened version of a Broadway hit."  The length is based on the attention span of the audience which, according to research is 45 – 55 minutes and this rule continues on cruise ships to this day. SUMMER IN THE CITY might be a little longer with an ice cream interval!!

John has co-written the show with journalist and Sunday Express columnist Jennifer Selway with whom he has already had several collaborations. The show is produced by John’s partner Katie and is about a group of young people, the regulars who meet in a coffee bar that’s run by an older woman. One of the girls wants to become a singer, “because everyone did in the 60s” says Plews.    There’s a lot of references to things that happened in the period, for instance, the show opens on the day David Bailey got married to Catherine Deneuve at St. Pancras Town Hall in August 1965.

“First and foremost, we want to entertain our audiences” says John. “The main reason for staging any musical is for the audience’s enjoyment… it would be rather silly playing to an empty house!”  The show is Ovation’s Christmas extravaganza, running December 2022 to 15 January 2023.  This will be the twenty-fourth and last Ovation Christmas musical as John & Katie will be leaving The Gatehouse at the end of February. 

John Plews was chatting with Heather Jeffery, Editor of London Pub Theatres Magazine

SUMMER IN THE CITY 
Written by Jennifer Selway                       
Devised and directed by John Plews
Produced by Ovation                 
14^th December 2022 - 15^th January 2023

Tuesdays – Saturdays 7.30pm
Matinees - various dates and times

Bookings

If you would like to book over the phone please call the Box Office on 020 8340 3488