AMADEUS is one of those rare plays that are simply word perfect! From the fretful opening with Von Strack, Orsini-Rosenberg, and Van Swieten, then Salieri’s magnificent monologue, through to the end, the play’s verbiage will never let the actors nor the audience down. The Production Company, helmed by director August Viverito, is every bit the champion in bringing Peter Shaffer’s Tony Award winning play to life.

Composer Antonio Salieri, who enjoyed fame and prominence throughout Europe, exclaims “I murdered Mozart” on his deathbed. Salieri had made a pact with God that he would be the vessel through which God’s music would spring. Salieri was the Vienna court composer when the eccentric, brilliant man-child Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart arrived on the scene. To Salieri’s horror and paranoia, he comes to the conclusion that it is Mozart, not him, who is God’s musical voice. Salieri decides to teach God a lesson. He’d bring about Mozart’s musical demise, thus blocking God’s voice on earth!

Peter Swander is Salieri. He handles all the beautiful monologues with gorgeous aplomb. He brings the audience to the events. What Swander lacks is a certain insanity in the eyes. The audience should feel like Salieri is about to blow up, possessed so to speak, with the demon of a ferocious jealousy. He might be too nice. No matter really, as he still is a pleasure to “travel with”. Patrick Stafford is Mozart, and he is every bit the egocentric genius author Shaffer meant him to be. It’s hard not to copy Tom Hulce’s portrayal in the 1984 film adaptation, but Stafford carves his own unique blend of boyish mischief and adult insight into the character.

I felt a true loss at the death scene. Danielle Doyen captures wife Constanze’s seductive love and middle class greed. Her Mrs. Mozart is a woman who neither truly understands Mozart’s genius, nor cares to understand it in anything further than dollars and cents, or whatever the Viennese currency was at the time.

David Stifel, Dan Alemshah, Barry Saltzman, and David Robert May as the three court denizens mentioned in the first paragraph, and Emperor Joseph II respectively, make for an excellent ensemble. They are much more than a Greek chorus, filling out the action and emotion of the play as it flashes back, then linearly moves forward to Salieri’s end. The Chandler Studio Theatre’s stage is neither big nor lavishly set, so it’s up to the actors to create the scene visually. These four do that well. When May steps out as the Emperor followed by his three advisors, you know you are in the palace and can feel the lavishness through the actors. You also know how important it was to please the Emperor.

Sound design by Bob Blackburn, with additional keyboard work by Matthew Park, is well placed. We really believe the piano parts are coming from the stage left, keyboard-hidden piano rather than a pre-recorded source.

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