A Jewish Atheist Christmas with Burton Lane

Name: A Jewish Atheist Christmas with Burton Lane
Start: 2025-12-13T19:00:00-08:00
End: 2025-12-13T20:30:00-08:00
Location: Martuni's

Schedule

Sat Dec 13 2025 at 07:00 pm to 08:30 pm

UTC-08:00

Location

Martuni's | San Francisco, CA

Tickets: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/daves/1914683
Dave Schweisguth sings the songs of Burton Lane, especially the Christmasy ones, accompanied by pianist Dwight Okamura!
Burton Lane was the greatest composer of the Great American Songbook ... that most people don't recognize right away. He scored more than sixty films, including "Babes on Broadway" and "Royal Wedding", and a dozen stage shows, most notably "Finian's Rainbow" and "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever". His lyricists included the greats Frank Loesser, Yip Harburg and Alan Jay Lerner. No songwriter could better inspire an evening of cabaret. And, though he was Jewish and the Freedom from Religion Foundation claims him as one of their own, a surprising number of his songs touch on Christmas ... so it's a Christmas show!
Dave Schweisguth is a singer who especially loves lyrics, lyricists, fun and funny songs, and the composers who make them sparkle. His most recent show at Martuni's, accompanied by piano wizard Nick Perez, told the amazing story of the lyricist Andy Razaf. Dave has also written and performed shows about songwriters Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer, Carolyn Leigh, Jerome Kern, Frank Loesser and Yip Harburg, taken more than one crack at Kurt Weill, and occasionally aired his domestic laundry in shows about quarantine with his mystery pianist and about the long dark night of their two-year kitchen renovation.
Dwight Okamura has been the orchestral pianist for the Berkeley Symphony, the California Symphony, the Skywalker Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony. He has accompanied various Bay Area vocal ensembles including Chanticleer, the Bracebridge singers, The Choral Arts Society, The Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco, The San Francisco Symphony Chorus, the San Francisco Girls Chorus and the Children's Theatre Association's Songbirds. Dwight has composed numerous commissioned original works and arrangements, and three musicals: Grow Up, produced in 1984 by the New Conservatory Children’s Theatre; Strikers, produced in 1995 by Doublemask Productions; and Burning Louise, currently in workshop stage. Dwight is also a keyboardist with the Best of Broadway series, and has played for the pre-Broadway premieres of Mamma Mia, Wicked, The Mambo Kings, Lestat and Legally Blonde, in addition to The Lion King, Altar Boyz, Matthew Bourne’s Edward Scissorhands, and the revival of A Chorus Line, for which he also played on the cast recording. He is also a recital and cabaret pianist, playing for performers ranging from Frederica Von Stade to Bruce Vilanch.
Martuni's is one of San Francisco's best places to see up and coming cabaret and theater performers, as well as being SF's premier piano bar and the home of its most generous cocktails. At the corner of Valencia and Market streets, Martuni's is easily reached by BART or Muni. There is a Sunday afternoon show especially for patrons who like to visit the city while it's still light, and while parking is free and not time-limited.