Fond tributes on death of Chichester's "titan of British theatre"

Among his many achievements at the CFT was the creation of the Minerva Theatre.

John was the CFT’s seventh director from 1983-1989. His funeral will be held at All Saint’s Church, East Dean at 2pm on Friday, May 30.

John was born on August 2 1929 to Frank and Martha Gale and married Lisel Wratten in 1950. He was the father to Tim and Matthew and grandfather to Joseph, Alexander, Eleanor and Siena. He attended Christ’s Hospital School which he was very proud to serve as an Almoner and Governor.

As a London impresario John produced more than 100 productions, both in the UK and abroad. Among his West End successes were: Boeing-Boeing (five year West End run); The Secretary Bird (four year WE run); No Sex Please, We’re British, the longest-running comedy in theatre history (17 years); Cause Celebre, Terence Rattigan’s last play; The Kingfisher (West End and Broadway); Abelard and Helouise; and Middle Age Spread for which he received a SOLT (now Olivier) Award.

He was President of SOLT 1972-75 and Chairman of the Theatres National Committee 1979-85. At SOLT, together with Sir Peter Saunders and Ray Cooney, he changed the SOLT awards into the Olivier Awards that we know today. He also was pivotal in creating the Half-Price Ticket Booth in Leicester Square. He was awarded the OBE in 1987 for services to theatre.

Justin Audibert and Kathy Bourne, artistic and executive directors respectively of Chichester Festival Theatre, said: “Today we are mourning the loss of John Gale, who came to Chichester as executive producer under Patrick Garland in 1983, and took over as director of the Theatre from 1985-1989. He’d previously been a highly successful West End commercial producer, and not only put CFT on a firm financial footing but also programmed many memorable productions, ranging from John Osborne’s A Patriot for Me with Alan Bates to Noël Coward’s Cavalcade with 200 members of the local community, and from Nicholas Hytner’s production of The Scarlet Pimpernel with Donald Sinden to Sam Mendes’s staging of London Assurance with Paul Eddington.

“But John’s two most lasting legacies were the firm establishment of Chichester Festival Youth Theatre in 1985, and the building of the Minerva Theatre which opened in 1989 with Sam Mendes as its Artistic Director. Today, it’s hard to imagine CFT without those twin pillars of its existence and we will all forever be in his debt.

“John continued to be a frequent visitor to the Theatre from his nearby Sussex home. His passion for Chichester Festival Theatre never dimmed and we send our deepest sympathies to his wife Lisel, his wider family and many friends.”

Theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh said: “John Gale was one of the titans of British theatre for over 30 years. Producing several of the longest running British comedies of all time, including No Sex Please, We’re British and Boeing Boeing.

“From the moment I met him, as a penniless producer in my early 20s, he became one of my champions – advising and helping me to establish my career. We co-produced several shows together, before John went on to restore the fortunes of the Chichester Festival Theatre during the 1980s, leaving it solidly solvent and thereby ensuring its future.

“John’s longest and proudest run has of course been his amazing marriage to his wonderful wife, Lisel, whom I have been lucky enough to have known and stayed friends with for over 50 years of their record-breaking marriage. John was truly one of the godfathers of British Theatre.”

Sir Sam Mendes added: “Passionate, dynamic, opinionated, larger than life – they don’t make them like John Gale anymore. His refusal to take no for an answer was a hugely significant factor in turning the Chichester Festival Theatre into the regional powerhouse it is today. He created and built the Minerva Theatre, strengthened the youth theatre, mounted immense community projects, and oversaw and encouraged a steady flow of young talent - myself among them. I learned an awful lot about bravery from John, and – as the person who gave me my first ever job – I also owe him an immense debt of gratitude.”

Many will remember John for the creation of the Minerva Theatre. It was John who turned a long-cherished dream into reality.

After two years alongside Patrick Garland, John ran the theatre from 1985–1989 – and he felt acutely its lack of a studio space.

“All the other leading theatres, particularly the National and the RSC, had their own studio theatres,” he told me a few years ago. “I thought that the CFT should have a proper studio theatre too.

“The tent had served its purpose extremely well, but there were a lot of people that wouldn’t come to sit in a tent. They wanted to be in a proper theatre.”

There was also a need to have a restaurant and to provide a club room for the Theatre Society.

“Fortunately (CFT founder) Leslie (Evershed-Martin) saw that it was vital. Leslie wanted to put up a building, and in fact it had been something that had been on the wish list almost from the word go when the theatre was originally built. But they had never had enough money to do it.

“But now, owing to my financial acumen, we had a lot of money. The board were persuaded to use this money and also to do some fund-raising. The great triumph of the Minerva was that we put it up without a penny of debt.”

Building started in 1988, and it opened in 1989 at a cost – fully covered – of one and a half million pounds.

It was a huge success – and John felt at times, a victim of that own success.

“The difficulty that the Minerva has created is that it is a space that actors absolutely love working in and very often prefer it to the main house – for the reason that the Minerva is so intimate. And it is difficult to make the Minerva pay.”

John also loved the fact that it was almost an optical illusion: the Minerva stage area is exactly the same size as the main-house stage, without the steps that lead up to it. John was also delighted that – apart from one interlude – it has maintained its black box character, darks walls focusing everything on the work unfurling before your eyes.

John admitted: “I like the idea of studio theatre as being two planks and a passion, going back to medieval England.”

He counted South Downs and The Browning Version in the Minerva among the finest shows he saw there – exactly the kinds of pieces for which the Minerva was created.

Another of John's initiatives was the setting up of the youth theatre.

"They had a creche in effect on Saturdays mornings where actors read stories to children effectively while their parents went off shopping. I thought that we should do this properly and have a proper youth theatre. We met a young teacher in Chichester who was theatre mad, and she was in charge of the youth theatre for the first year."

It opened a major chapter in the CFT's history, with the youth theatre flourishing to this day. For years now, the youth theatre has provided the CFT's principal main-house attraction at Christmas.

For John, the wider community was of huge importance, and it was John who inaugurated the theatre's tradition of community productions, with Cavalcade and The Scarlet Pimpernel in 1985.

Cavalcade was a fascinating piece by Noel Coward, a piece which might be regarded as rather jingoistic these days, John said. Written in 1930, it went from the Boer War through to the end of the First World War: “It was the original Upstairs, Downstairs really.

“There were a lot of people in it anyway, but there were also a huge amount of extras, and so we got local people to come in. We had 150 local people filling the stage. Outside the theatre they had to put dressing rooms up. It was quite a logistical feat! It was a fantastic evening at the theatre.”