Thanks to tour de force performances by David Suchet and Michael Sheen and to a smooth, glowing production by Hall and designer William Dudley, Shaffer's take on the Salieri/Mozart conflict comes across with considerable power twenty years after first written and performed. It doesn't hurt that the production has come to L.A. after a long run in London, where performances were well honed and the script rewritten. Suchet in particular makes the most of the text, giving us a Salieri that is deeply felt and investigated, delivered with power and charisma -- so much so that at times we feel we're watching a one-man show. From now on, all Salieris must be measured against what this excellent actor has done. Sheen is no slouch either as Mozart, catching the multi-faceted sides of the young composer whose bizarre genius drove Salieri mad with jealousy and awe. The demands on Sheen are many, but they are nothing to what Suchet must face, switching back and forth between Salieri as a young and old man.
Cindy Katz does good, but not memorable, work as Constanze, but the actors who bring the court of Emperor Josef II to life -- David McCallum, J.P. Linton, Terence Rigby, Michael Keenan, Jake Broder and Charles Janasz -- are on a par with Suchet and Sheen. The same holds true for Dudley's set, which uses an upstage scrim that, depending on how Paule Constable lights it, becomes a mirror on the royal court, a window on Vienna or a shroud wrapping itself around Salieri in his death-throes.
Visually exciting, skillfully acted and directed, this is an Amadeus to remember.
