FROM the writers, producers, and director of Dreamboats And Petticoats comes Save The Last Dance For Me, a journey through the music and magic of the early 1960s on board the songs of Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman.

Running at the Grand Opera House, York, from April 2 to 6, Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran’s musical follows two teenage sisters through the summer of 1963.

For the first time they are without their parents as they embark on a holiday to the seaside. Full of high spirits, they meet a handsome young American who invites them to a dance at the local U.S. Air Force base, but young love and holiday romance is never as simple as it sounds.

Among the cast is Consett-born actor, singer and bass guitarist Chris Coxon, who took his early steps in theatre at Riding Lights Theatre in York. “I did my work experience with them when I was 14 back in 2002,” he says. “I did a lot of administrative stuff in the office and some stage management errands and sourcing of props.

“It was just a couple of weeks as my school placement. Everyone else wanted to do placements in businesses but I wanted to work in theatre as I’d always wanted to do that – and if you’ve always done it as a pastime, then it occurs to you that you could do it all the time.”

Chris started performing in amateur dramatics shows with the Children’s Theatre Workshop in Consett “very early on”, appearing in such shows as Guys And Dolls, Singin’ In The Rain and Godspell. “I also came from an artistic family, but none of them were professional – though now sister and brother, Emma Coxon and Glenn Thomas, are club singers on the north east circuit.

Chris trained at the Performance Academy, Newcastle College and the Arts Educational Schools in London and has gone on to play such roles as Colin in Deamboats And Petticoats; SpongeBob in SpongeBob SquarePants: The Sponge Who Could Fly; and a knight, a dancing nun, a killer rabbit, a random frog and, on occasion, Prince Herbert in Monty Python’s Spamalot.

He first played Johnny in Save The Last Dance For Me in the original cast and returns to the role now that Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran have re-worked their show.

“Johnny is a young man from New Jersey who works in reconnaissance, stationed in Lowestoft. He’s there partly because of the Cold War, when America needed Britain as a strategic ally as missiles didn’t have the range they do now.

“It’s quite exciting for them being there, not that you’d expect that in Lowestoft, but the American servicemen are the most exciting thing going on there: these exotic men from America that the girls found so attractive.”

At the centre of Marks and Gran’s story is US Airman First Class Curtis, who sings in the band The Airmen, in which Johnny plays bass.

“Curtis is black, from Tennessee, at a time when racial prejudice was really bad, and he’s been able to escape that, but he’s got ahead of himself, expecting it not to be like that in Britain too,” says Chris.

“He still meets with prejudice when he meets up with a 17-year-old town girl, Marie, who of course become his latest flame.”

The show is built around the songs of Pomus & Shuman, although not exclusively so. “When they started thing about making basically a Dreamboats 2, they hit on the hits of Pomus and Shuman whose may not be as familiar as Goffin and King and Bacharach and David, but they wrote lots of songs for Elvis and The Drifters, such as Viva Las Vegas and the title song,” says Chris.

“It’s the rhythm & blues rather than poppy side that we focus on, which is great for me as a bassist as I get to play some really interesting bass lines – and I get to sing some of the higher notes on The Coasters’ Young Blood, as well as the low notes on the bass!”

• Save The Last Dance For Me runs at Grand Opera House, York, from April 2 to 6, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or atgtickets.com/york