JIM Welsman may not have planned it this way, but the inaugural York New Musical Festival has a preponderance of women.

“An interesting slant on the festival is that most of the composers are women and even those that aren’t have women as central characters in their shows,” says Jim, former chairman of York Musical Theatre Company and director of the festival, which runs at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre from July 23 to 29.

“Seasons was written and composed by Elaine Pechacek and Katie Hammond; Girl With A Torch by Judit Catan, Confessions Of A Rabbi’s Daughter by Emily Rose Simons; and Francesca’s Passenger by Becky Callaghan.

“Austen The Musical is about the life of Jane Austen; Armada features Elizabeth I; and Lady Luck has three girls competing for the love of one man. Even Cindy Weller is about a modern-day Cinderella.”

The festival will open serendipitously with Antony Irwin’s Lady Luck on Tuesday at 7.30pm. “Unfortunately, Stephen Hodel and David Benedictus’s The Happy Hypocrite had to be withdrawn, but we now have Lady Luck as a replacement, only for one performance right at the beginning,” says Jim.

In Lady Luck, Xander Jackson is a self assured, occasionally cocky 27-year-old working in the city and living with girlfriend, Zoe, but he lusts after a more exciting lifestyle. Promiscuous workmate Madison and demure school friend Paige weave their own stimulation into Xander’s life, and with pulses racing, three thoroughly modern women compete for the love of one lucky guy. Let the games – and the festival – begin.

Jim Welsman has secured the British premiere of the New York musical Seasons. “I made contact with several American composers, and when I heard Seasons, I knew it would be ideal for the festival,” he says.

“Knowing that York musical theatre producer and director Robert Readman had similar musical tastes to mine, I invited him to contact the composers, Elaine Pechacek and Katie Hammond, and within a very short time it was agreed that Robert’s company, Pick Me Up Theatre, would put on the production.”

Directed by Readman with Barbara Chan as his musical director, the premiere will be staged from Wednesday to Friday.

In Seasons, former classmates Helen and Peter reconnect with one another at a high-school reunion, leading to an unexpected pregnancy, while mother and daughter Mrs Jones and Hope are grappling with an unwelcome diagnosis that tears their lives apart.

Seasons is one of four productions in the festival that involve York talent, the others being Rob Winlow’s rehearsed reading of Austen on July 27 and performances of Armada on July 28 and 29; and fellow festival committee member Mike Rogerson’s new golfing spin on Cinderella, a rock’n’roll musical entitled Cinder Weller, on July 27 and 28.

“Austen is about the life of novelist Jane Austen and her struggle as a woman in a man’s world and also the three romances she had during her short life,” says Jim.

“Armada’s subject is the defeat of the Spanish Armada with the connivance of the Queen’s astrologer Dr John Dee, and the show has been re-worked by Rob several times. I directed the premiere in York in 2011 and he then changed it for the Edinburgh Fringe festival; it’s now a multi-media show with magic and projections, which Rob is taking to Edinburgh again this summer.”

Mike Rogerson, from Dunnington, worked in shipping but has always kept his hand in both as a keen golfer and as a musician, playing in Sixties and Seventies residency bands and now with the group Northern Rock.

He combines his two passions in Cinder Weller, which marks a change of tack for Mike from writing pantomimes for performances in Dunnington and East Yorkshire.

“I’ve taken the well-known story of Cinderella and given it a twist. Cindy Weller is a beautiful young girl from a golfing family, stuck at home looking after her dad and her horrible twin brothers, who force her to cook, clean and slave for them on a daily basis,” he says. “Banned from playing golf by her widowed father, she eventually gets the chance to play with the help of the Ladies’ Captain and falls hopelessly in love with a handsome and charming golf pro, but it’s not all that it seems.”

The rest of the festival participants will bring their own shows. On July 27, Becky Callaghan performs her work-in-progress, Francesca’s Passenger, set in 1948 when a quiet, shy woman is trying to escape her past.

In Judit Catan’s Girl With A Torch, on July 27 and 28, Julie is all alone at home with only her teddy for comfort. After a quarrel, her mum and dad seem to have disappeared, so she sets out to search for something lost.

On July 28, Emily Rose Simons presents her one-woman musical Confessions Of A Rabbi’s Daughter, in which Rachel Wiseman, Rabbi’s daughter and Sunday school teacher, is looking forward to becoming the perfect Jewish mother and wife until she realises her feelings for her best friend, Ruth.

All add to the variety of this showcase festival for “the best unsigned musicals”, the first of its kind in Britain. Presented by the York New Musical Festival Association, the event is open to visiting directors, producers and investors, as well as the general public.

All performances are at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, Haxby Road, York. Box office: York Theatre Royal, 01904 623568 or online at ynmf.org

• The festival programme

July 23, 7.30pm, Lady Luck; July 24 to 26, 7.30pm, Seasons; July 27, 2.30pm, Francesca’s Passenger, rehearsed reading with songs; July 27, 3.45pm, Austen The Musical, rehearsed reading with songs; July 27, 5.30pm and July 28, 2.30pm, Girl With A Torch; July 27, 7.30pm and July 28, 8.30pm, Cindy Weller; July 28, 4.30pm and July 29, 7.30pm, Armada; July 28, 6.30pm, Confessions Of A Rabbi’s Daughter.