Symphony summer series revives Yiddish theater

Before Fierstein, there was Ellstein. And before Tommy Tune there was Thomashefsky. The great Jewish names of Broadway's past will be revived in the San Francisco Symphony's "Of Thee I Sing: Yiddish Theater, Broadway, and the American Voice," a series of upcoming concerts.

Masterminded by the symphony's music director, Michael Tilson Thomas, the festival encompasses the music of several decades, from the first wave of Jewish immigration in the late 1800s through the golden age of Broadway.

The series runs from Thursday, June 23, to Friday, July 1, in Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. The festival takes a look at the Jewish artists who shaped the Yiddish theater, Broadway, Tin Pan Alley and the concert hall.

The festival opens June 23 to 25 with a semi-staged double-bill of George and Ira Gershwin's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical "Of Thee I Sing" and its sequel "Let 'Em Eat Cake," both directed by Broadway veteran Patricia Birch.

"The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater" is based on the legacy of Tilson Thomas' grandparents Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, both pioneers of New York's Yiddish theater.

The June 29 show, already sold out, made its world premiere at Carnegie Hall in April. For those who still want to see the performance, tickets for the rehearsal earlier in the day are available.

A concert of music by Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland follows on June 30 and will include such favorites as "Billy the Kid" and the symphonic dances from "West Side Story."

On Friday, July 1, singer/pianist Michael Feinstein, joined by a jazz ensemble, will sing classics from the America songbook by Jewish composers George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers and others.

Festival performances are presented by the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, with support from, among others, the Koret Foundation, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, Anita and Ronald Wornick, the Walter & Elise Haas Fund and the Bernard and Barbro Osher Staged Production Fund.

Information: (415) 864-6000 or www.sfsymphony.org.