Too many notes," says Emperor Joseph II of Austria to a young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, delivering a line so amazingly dumb that it probably will remain in universal memory forever, adapted by editors who can tell reporters, "Too many words" or a more exact "Too many letters."
But "Amadeus," Peter Shaffer's play that opened the 2009-10 season at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis Friday night, is more than one-liners from a monarch with a facial expression so vacant he reminds one of a former U.S. president (and Joe Hickey is perfect in the role), or a display of Envy, one of the seven deadly sins, so vicious that it destroys Antonio Saleri, he who is Envious. It's also a tale of Saleri's struggle against a God who has not answered his prayers. Joe Poulos, making his Rep debut as Mozart, and Andrew Long, as Salieri, are exciting and powerful.
And as usual, the Rep's technical team is triumphant. Peter Sargent, involved in Rep openers for the entire 43-year life of the theater, designs a delicate, intense lighting scheme that unobtrusively accents the action, and it's not true that an exploding light bulb that caused only the briefest of pauses was his attempt to be flashy. Bill Clarke's set, on an almost-bare stage, is heightened by mirrors at stage left and right, their ghostly reflections bringing an additional air of mystery, Dorothy Marshall Englis' costumes show court styles of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and Mozart's bright, attention-getting garb slowly darkens and simplifies through the action as his life and his thoughts grow darker. Henry Palkes, the music supervisor, and Rusty Wandall, the sound designer, made Mozart's music a critical part of the evening.
Salieri recognizes Mozart's genius and his own shortcomings, telling God, "Goodness did not make me a good composer," but Salieri was more devious than devout, even telling Constanze Weber Mozart that a bedroom assignation with her would mean a more important-and better paid-position in the emperor's court, a bargain he has no intention of keeping. And his attitude of repeatedly damning Mozart with faint praise as he talks with other courtiers or the emperor is enough to make the skin crawl. He lies and cheats and displays his young and beautiful mistress, played with coquettish charm by Maggie Murphy. Salieri's confrontation with Constanze, a well-layered performance by Elizabeth Stanley, is a powerful moment. In an effort to help her husband, despite his habit of also bedding as many young women as possible, she'll go along with Salieri, but it's obvious he will pay heavily for every moment and movement.
Mozart is young and foolish, forced to compose by the blood boiling inside him, but equally committed to using baby-talk with Constanze, rolling on the floor with her at every opportunity. Poulos shows him beautifully as this child-man, unable to control his fingers when faced with lined parchment or his mouth when a one-liner or a put-down are at hand. Salieri is his opposite, as Long displays. Everything is planned, spontaneity is not in his genes, underhanded moves are the first solutions to any problem.
The supporting cast is just right, led by Craig Baldwin and Michael Dean Morgan as a pair of Venticellos, often speaking in unisoin and serving as a sort-of Greek chorus, interlocutors, gossips, narrators and other necessary types to move the action along. The nine ensemble members also contribute nicely in varied roles and attitudes, through numerous quick changes. They add the harmony that director Paul Mason Barnes has found in his approach to the play, and so do Jeffrey Hayenga, Richmond Hoxie and Walter Hudson as three aging courtiers, rather like a Viennese Three Musketeers with about as much solidity as the candy bar of the same name.
"Amadeus" offers a splendidly entertaining evening at the Rep, and Shaffer's powerful tragedy comes across in exciting style.
At the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Loretto-Hilton Center, through Oct. 4
–Joe
Comments
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Loved the movie, and thanks to your excellent review we look forward to the play at the Rep.
Thank you.