Project Recalls Yiddish Theater Legends

Thomashefsky Project/Michael Tilson Thomas

Bessie and Boris Thomashefsky were the most popular performers of the Yiddish Theater era.

Thomashefsky Project/Michael Tilson Thomas

Michael Tilson Thomas, left, with his grandmother, Bessie, and his father, Ted Thomas

Michael Tilson Thomas is a superstar in the classical music world. He is the music director of the San Francisco Symphony and artistic director of Miami’s New World Symphony. This weekend, Tilson Thomas is taking a look at the world of his grandparents, who were superstars of another era: Yiddish Theater greats Bessie and Boris Thomashefsky.

Tilson Thomas says that, growing up in Los Angeles, his grandmother Bessie Thomashefsky was a frequent houseguest. He never knew his grandfather, who died in 1939.

The pair, born in Russia, became legends in Yiddish Theater, a genre they helped define. Among Boris Thomashefsky's more ambitious projects was a version of Hamlet that would inspire audiences to explore the original Shakespeare. And Tilson Thomas says he hopes this evening, dedicated to his grandparents, provides similar inspiration.

The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater plays at New York’s Zankel Hall this weekend. It will be repeated at Davies Hall in San Francisco this June.