AS Bev Jones's wife, show producer Lesley, writes on her Welcome page in the programme, the York composer, impresario, musical director and leading man "genuinely has no recollection of writing this musical, such is the tragedy of his illness".

Any profit after costs from this world premiere of Bev's completed version of Penny Millionaire will be donated to the Alzheimer's Society to help people with Alzheimer's disease and dementia, a condition that has beset Bev, who now lives at Thistle Hill Care Centre in Knaresborough.

Penny Millionaire, the riches to rags to riches story of French stockbroker turned Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin, had begun life as a joint venture between Bev Jones and Stephen Ward in 1976.

Later, Bev re-wrote his musical with new arrangements, new songs and a new script with modern theatrical twists, a task he completed in 2012 while recovering from a stroke. "I hope you will accept the little Bev nuances, such as 'The Mime Artist' and 'The tongue-in-cheek Narrator'," wrote Lesley. "I knew Bev wanted the, but not how, so I had to guess it!".

And yes, there remains a slightly experimental air to the essentially traditional Penny Millionaire, but between them, Lesley Jones, director/choreographer Iain Harvey, musical director and their Yorkshire actors, singers, dancers and acrobats have done a fine job with Bev's final work. What's more, Lawrence Crawford's Mime Artist and in particular Craig Kirby's bass-voiced, golden-tongued Narrator are worthy additions.

York Press:

Rory Mulvihill as Paul Gauguin and Sally Lewis as his wife Mette. Picture: Wendy Binns

Kirby is the safest of pair of hands of all York's community actors – has he ever given a less than outstanding performance? – and here he is the glue that bonds a show that begins a tad erratically but gradually finds its feet.

The Narrator can be gravely serious at times, rightly so given the more tragic side to Gauguin's story, but equally often he is humorous, the fountain for the frivolity that bursts out of Angela Edwards's Madame Gloanec so playfully when singing When I Was A Girl Of Seventeen. High spirits continue as Sophie Houghton-Brown's Nicolette leads Clap Your Hands, joined by the ensemble tapping rhythmically on the stage floor.

We first meet stalwart leading man Rory Mulvihill's Gauguin as a richly successful stockbroker driven only by a desire to paint, despite the objections of his sour wife, Sally Lewis's Mette. He exhibits, alas rather unsuccessfully, with the nascent French Impressionists of the Artists' Quarter, Monet, Pisarro, Sisley, Cezanne, Matisse, all present in Jones's Parisian canvas.

Gauguin, the tortured, impoverished, heavy-drinking artist, is captured in The Devil Portrait, sung lustily by Iain Harvey's Devil against Adam Moore's fiery film projection of Hell.

Bev always has excelled at glorious melodies of drama and passion and here they peak in Mulvihill's renditions of Angel Of Serenity and later King No Country, the My Way of this score. In Tahiti, where Gauguin finds new, blossoming love and a freedom of artistic expression, but still no money, Demi Lanham's Tehura sings Delightful Days most delightfully.

Humour returns in the witty wordplay of I Speak In Gauguinique, led by Gauguin's Parisian bit on the side, Hilary Dyson's Annah, and the tongue-twisting The Auctioneer's Song, sung with panache by Chris Hagyard's Martin.

Rodgers' 12-piece band contribute hugely to a premiere that does Bev proud. The Bev Jones Music Company will keep his musical flame burning bright in shows planned for 2016 and 2017. Meanwhile, Dave Willetts, star of many a musical will attend Saturday's matinee. Let's hope many more will support Penny Millionaire and in turn the Alzheimer's Society.

Penny Millionaire, The Bev Jones Music Company, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm nightly and 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk