THE Bev Jones 50th Anniversary Concert will be held in memory of the late York musical director, composer and singer on October 8 at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York.

The concert originally had been planned for April 2012 at York Barbican but had to be postponed at the time for medical reasons after Mr Jones suffered a stroke following a fall in York city centre.

He later recovered to complete work on his musical Penny Millionaire, whose premiere was presented at the Rowntree Theatre in January. Mr Jones died in February, and now his widow, Lesley, is to mount next month's concert. "In keeping with our tradition of upholding Bev's wishes, we're staging what would have been the content of his 50th Anniversary Concert," she says.

"He wrote this unique concert as two musicals, Act 1 being excerpts from Jesus Christ Superstar and Act 2 being excerpts from Les Miserables, with all the music being adapted by Bev to suit a concert format.

"In accordance with rights holders, we're not allowed to costume or perform the actual shows, and we totally adhere to this but we use visual projection to add to the rich ambience of the music. We're also including the full orchestra on stage, led by musical director James Rodgers, which was Bev's original idea, to enhance the audience's fulfilment."

As a further feature, six of the ensemble numbers will be performed on stage with the words available in print to encourage the audience to join in with the production. "We hope to lift the roof at the Rowntree Theatre with more than 400 people singing along to songs such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Master Of The House and the powerful One Day More to finish the performance," says Lesley.

The usual faces from Bev Jones's productions will assembling again to play the principal roles, such as Chris Hagyard, Iain Harvey, Terry Ford, Sally Lewis, Kelly Bolland and Steven Jobson, who all took leading parts in Penny Millionaire. In all, the show will have a cast of 24, accompanied by an eight-piece orchestra.

"The entire production has been musically put together and directed by Iain Harvey, who has to be one of our most prolific all-round musical theatre exponents," says Lesley. "He can sing, dance, act, direct; be chorus master and play various instruments; he has his own band; he's an energetic acrobatic skills expert, and he's still under 30 years of age.

"So I had no doubts as to who to invite to direct our next show, Bev Jones's humorous Broadway version of The Pirates Of Penzance, next February. Iain will not only direct the production, last seen nearly ten years ago at York Theatre Royal, when he played Samuel, but also will star as Frederick, the hapless young suitor."

Tickets for the 2.30pm and 7.30pm shows on October 8 are on sale at £8 to £12, with concessions available, on 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk. The box office is open from 10am to 2pm, Monday to Saturday, except Tuesdays.

"This fund-raising concert will again give any profits to the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Charitable Trust, which funds this lovely community theatre," says Lesley.

"Our aim is to always make this gesture as a thank-you for all the tireless work they do, all on a voluntary basis. Without them, we would have no venue to perform as we're not a working company that can fund large productions at large theatres. Please help us raise as much as possible for this wonderful theatre, while enjoying once again a Bev Jones extravaganza."