Visitors to Trafalgar Square this weekend are in for a musical treat. Singers, including Beverley Knight, Matt Cardle and Pixie Lott will be performing free. There will be performances from hit shows including Wicked, The Lion King and Kinky Boots. The annual West End Live event is a showcase for London's top entertainment, and it's all the brainchild of a Tory councillor.
Robert Davis dreamed up the event in 2005 when there were fears that the new Westfield shopping centre would draw people away from the attractions of central London. He still produces it, raising £450,000 in sponsorship every year. In 2005, only five shows took part. This year there will be 28.
"I say all politicians are failed actors," says Davis, who enjoyed spending the day dressed up as Les Miserables's Monsieur Thenardier for London's New Year's Day Parade (below). But this is an especially enjoyable time of year. As well as West End Live, he is chairman of Regents Park Open Air Theatre. Last month, he attended the premiere of an adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's book Running Wild, the first production of the 2016 summer season.
An ardent theatre lover since his early childhood, growing up in Hampstead Garden Suburb, Davis, 58, is also responsible for the creation of two theatres, the St James Theatre and the soon to be opened Nimax Theatre on Charing Cross Road.
Entertainment is just a small part of his work as the longest serving member of Westminster council. Besides being deputy leader, he is now also cabinet member for the built environment with special responsibility for planning, mayoral and special events. He's also a deputy lieutenant of Greater London and chairman of the London Mayors' Association.
It was a secret for 20 years, then it was front page news
Davis, a member of the West London Reform Synagogue, admits that his busy working life is a good distraction from the loss of his partner, Sir Simon Milton, who was deputy mayor of London. Sir Simon died five years ago from pneumonia following a bone marrow transplant. This was particularly difficult as it followed the death of Davis's sister from cancer the previous year. Now, his closest family are his two nieces and a 100-year-old grandmother, who lives in St John's Wood.
Simon and Robert had been in a secret relationship for more than 20 years before they decided to come out. "To be gay and openly gay was not something you could do in the Conservative Party in the 1980s. We lived a lie and had flats around the corner from each other. On Monday, we were in my flat and on Tuesday in his."
"Then, in 2007, Simon was on the brink of becoming chairman of the Local Government Association, making him effectively the most important councillor in the country. He decided we should go public and he asked me to marry him."
So they quickly planned a civil partnership ceremony at the Ritz Hotel. The first their friends knew about their relationship was when they received their wedding invitations that Monday. One invitee sent the story to the Evening Standard and that Wednesday it became front-page news: Westminster Chief to Wed his Gay Lover.
"So, from being very discreet for years, literally overnight everyone in London knew. We were the first two high-profile people in politics marrying each other. We were on the billboard of every newspaper stand that day," says Robert.
It turned out to be the best thing for them. They received hundreds of messages from well-wishers.
Since Simon passed away, Robert has immersed himself ever more deeply in his work. Until April last year, he was also a partner at law firm Freeman Box, specialising in property law, but retired as a lawyer to concentrate on fulfilling his many other roles.
Besides the pomp and ceremony of his job, Robert deals with thousands of planning applications that are received in Westminster each year. "I have made a lot of friends, but also made a lot of enemies who don't like my decisions. "Ultimately, however, you have to feel inside you that you made the right decision, and one which is for the better good of Westminster as a whole."
For now, he can take a break from planning applications as he oversees the final touches to West End Live, and looks forward to singing along to his favourite musical Jersey Boys this weekend.
