Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus”

A Theatrical, Visual and Aural Feast

Sumptuous, thrilling and endlessly entertaining, Pasadena Playhouse’s new production of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus is what Wagner would call, gesamtkunstwerk, i.e., a total work of art. Now running through March 15 (it’s already been extended once), the play is laced with theatrical intelligence, especially as anchored by the brilliant Jefferson Mays as court composer Antonio Salieri, i.e., the Patron Saint of Mediocrity. Delivering a performance reeking of both control and corrosion—Mays’ Salieri is both master plotter and crumbling soul, his envy of Mozart – a scatalogically-inclined, ever-hilarious character, here played to the hilt by a boisterous Sam Clemmett – is delivered with what can only be called piercing venom.

Lauren Worsham’s Constanze, Mozart’s wife, is equally sharp but more emotionally grounded (in truth: who wouldn’t be, compared to the two male leads, their eccentricities off the chart), and offers a modicum of clarity amid the play’s escalating psychological warfare. Tony Award-winner and opera helmer, Darko Tresnjak, directs with strapping elegance, leaning into the play’s tonal collisions—comedy that morphs into dread, spectacle that devolves into confession.

Sam Clemmett and Laura Worsham; photo by Jeff Lorch.

What makes this staging fascinating is not merely its fidelity to Shaffer’s dazzling text, but its willingness to treat the work as a testament to both genius and mediocrity, bitter envy, and the horrifying price of wanting to be remembered.

And what’s a play about Mozart without some, well, warbling? Happily, the singing is as fine as the acting, with sopranos Michelle Allie Drever and Alaysha Fox offering wondrous takes on familiar arias. Then there’s Matthew Patrick Davis’ Emperor Joseph II, who might best be remembered as the ruler who dared tell Mozart that his opera, The Marriage of Figaro, had “too many notes,” and who elicited yucks at nearly every turn.

Ensemble, photo by Jeff Lorch

Completing the theatrical package is Alexander Dodge’s scrumptious, very red scenic design, with the period costumes of Linda Cho also on point, all beautifully lit by Pablo Santiago. Then there’s the power of Will Vicari’s hair/wig/makeup design, which transports us back to the Rococo heart of an 18^th century epoch.

Jefferson Mays, photo by Jeff Lorch

The play’s enduring power (written in 1979, it became an instant hit, with, of course, Milos Forman’s Oscar-winning 1984 film attracting even more fans), proves to be a canny blend of theatrical grandeur, psychological excavation, and operatic excess, all adding up to a production that makes one grateful for a fabulous night in the theater.

Cover image: Sam Clemmett, Jefferson Mays and Ensemble, photo by Jeff Lorch.

Tickets and Ticket Package information for Amadeus are available at pasadenaplayhouse.org, by phone at 626-356-7529, and at the box office at 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101.