Let $s_ν\circ s_μ$ denote the plethystic product of the Schur functions $s_ν$ and $s_μ$. In this article we define an explicit polynomial representation corresponding to $s_ν\circ s_μ$ with basis indexed by certain `plethystic' semistandard tableaux. Using these representations we prove generalizations of four results on plethysms due to Bruns--Conca--Varbaro, Brion, Ikenmeyer and the authors. In particular, we give a sufficient condition for the multiplicity $\langle s_ν\circ s_μ, s_λ\rangle$ to be stable under insertion of new parts into $μ$ and $λ$. We also characterize all maximal and minimal partitions $λ$ in the dominance order such that $s_λ$ appears in $s_ν\circ s_μ$ and determine the corresponding multiplicities using plethystic semistandard tableaux.