When writing a review for a play you haven’t seen, you have to wait until the end of the show to start writing your piece.

But when you attend violinist Itzhak Perlman’s 80th birthday klezmer concert — featuring musicians from acclaimed klezmer bands like The Klezmer Conservatory Band and The Klezmatics — your review can anticipate several things:

A. At the end of the show, the audience will give gave Perlman a standing ovation that lasts for several minutes.

B. The audience will join the musicians in singing happy birthday to Itzhak.

And C. During the performance, members of the audience will sing along, clap and even dance to the pieces being played.

All of these things came to pass at the concert, which occurred at the Upper West Side’s ornate Beacon Theater on Sept. 29, and so much more did, too. For example, after the “Happy Birthday” singalong, a huge cake was rolled out to the center of the stage where Perlman sat. The maestro, with a broad smile, proudly told the audience: “This cake was made by my daughter, Navah.”

And while Perlman and the musicians received a well-deserved standing ovation at the end of the show, the audience also gave such a long standing ovation at the start of the concert that Perlman had to make a sit-down motion with his hands.

Perhaps my personal highlight of the evening came when the show’s Master of Ceremonies, the Klezmer Conservatory Band founder and composer, Hankus Netsky — who was the musical director of this show and had accompanied........

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