Suzanne Weiss has been writing about the arts for the past 35 years. Formerly Arts Editor for the papers of Pioneer Press in the northern Chicago suburban area, her work also has appeared in Stagebill and Crain’s Chicago Business, among other publications. Since moving to the Bay Area she has reviewed theater, opera, dance and the occasional film for the San Mateo Times, “J” and is a regular contributor to culturevulture. She is the author of “Glencoe, Queen of Suburbs.”
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Writes in: Art & Architecture, Dance, Etc, Music, Television, and Theater.
TheaterBerkeley,
“Bubble bubble, toil and trouble” and for what? An evening of “sound and fury,” signifying, if not nothing, precious little.
Expectation ran high for Berkeley Rep’s visually stunning, starry production of Shakespeare’s Scottish play. Helmed by the great American ...
MusicSan Francisco,
“Champion” packs a punch. If Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard’s opera is not a complete knockout, it may be due to a flabby libretto by Michael Cristofer with words that don’t live up to the power of the highly-listenable score. ...
TheaterSan Francisco,
Can a bowl of soup really save a life? Probably not, but it makes for some interesting speculation in Julia Cho’s “Aubergine,” a play about love and death, estrangement and reconciliation, immigration and assimilation and, most of all, food, developed ...
DanceSan Francisco,
It’s the holidays. It’s “The Nutcracker.” So what else is new?
Actually, quite a lot, depending on whose eyes you are looking through. In a long career of reviewing, this critic has seen more “Nutcrackers” than you can shake ...
TheaterMountain View,
Adorable Emma. Impossible Emma. Self-absorbed and totally “Clueless” (anybody remember Alicia Silverstone's breakout movie?) Emma. Jane Austen’s irrepressible heroine, who gets her kicks from meddling in other people’s lives while not having a notion about her own, has been captivating ...
MusicSan Francisco,
I don’t know why, but every time I hear the four mighty chords that begin Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger,” tears come to my eyes. Perhaps it’s the sheer grandeur of this music. But this is not the grandeur of the gods ...
TheaterSan Francisco,
Who are you? I mean, really? Are you who you want to be, pretend to be or who your mother told you you ought to be? This, I think, is the question at the heart of Ayad Akhtar’s searing “Disgraced,” ...
TheaterSan Francisco,
Bring your grandma, bring your kids! The occasional touch of blue or potty humor either will delight them or go right over their heads. So will performers Slater Penney and Jaron Hollander as they fly, climb or crawl through the ...
MusicSan Francisco,
Sometimes you gotta take the good with the bad, and San Francisco Opera’s new production of Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” has plenty of both.
First the good news: the singing is pretty terrific and that’s what opera is ...
DanceSan Francisco,
You know the drill. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, girl loses slipper, boy finds girl and she gets, not only a husband, but a complete pair of shoes.
Everybody’s favorite fairy tale came to graceful and exuberant life ...
