Amadeus - NT

We noticed a couple of lines that weren't there so to speak, from the production we saw at the NT years ago, whenever it was.

Good show. Good use of the large stage. Great cast. Wonderful use of the musicians- fab understated bit at the very end when they put on their coats to go. What a play, eh? V 'theatrical', melodramatic at the end but earned, two stonking parts for blokes and a decent one for a gal. I was ever so slightly troubled at the end of the first half that he hadn't nailed it but then in the second half he upped it a gear, internalised it more/better and ran off with the prize at the end. Standing ovation at the end. Not me, bad back at the moment ( thank you for your sympathy) but I very much enjoyed it. Sooooo sad, so sad.

I was wearing the badge! We were in the stalls. I think the Mozart performance is written in as it were. I'd give 4/5 stars. 

I didn't have my badge but was in the circle, came down to the stalls for the interval, you wasn't eating an apple in the interval was you?

Amazing news! Saw him as Shylock in the RSC complete works almost ten years ago now. Will be booking for that😉

Left at interval I'm afraid. Actor playing Salieri didn't carry it enough for me and made it seem interminable. Wanted to do a Julie Walters Piecrust Players "drop the Italian, it's not coming over"... Didn't mind the annoying Mozart (that's the point, surely?), and the wife's characterisation made sense to me - though all the characterisations seemed pretty one-dimensional...

Lovely playing, though they took the serenade at a lick so the relevant bits referred to in the text had already gone by. And I really enjoyed the club orchestration of the New Year's party. Great staging, particularly at end of Act 1 - I get the whole Amadeus as punk thing (pink DMs, etc), but getting a bit tired of seeing 18th Century on stage as influenced by Westwood and Galliano. If you're going to reinterpret the period, do something new.

There were many aspects I enjoyed in terms of staging and the music, but I'm sorry to say I was bored at points, and not interested enough to return. Half a review!

 Nah, no apple. I was standing up,trying to stretch legs. Sorry we missed each other 

I'm due to see the show tomorrow night but I'm currently struck down with a terrible cough. This sounds like an odd question, but is there a lot of music/noise underscoring the show generally? Or any applause breaks in Act 1? If it's very quiet dialogue scenes and I need to cough, I don't want to be a distraction. I was at Ragtime last night, which meant I could have a little cough now and then in applause breaks and not disturb anyone. (weird question I know!)

So I saw this last night. Missing the Sheen & Suchet revival at the Old Vic years back is one of my big theatre regrets and so I was hopeful this revival would do something to ease my regret. But nope. It was....a disappointing evening. I lay the majority of the blame on Michael Longhurst, whose direction manages to be fussy, elaborate, clumsy, uncertain and intrusive all at the same time.

So, Salieri. Was it an Italian accent? He went super Italian whenever he said the name Mozart or was actually speaking Italian, but the rest of the time, no. His performance was mostly very one note, there was no charm, charisma, slyness, nothing. He got a little grief stricken in two overlong scenes at the end of each act, but other than that, his performance was the same flat line throughout. Unlike Gillen's take on the title character. Here, I can only imagine Longhurst's direction was "imagine you're Su Pollard dressed by Vivienne Westwood". I know he's meant to be childish and annoying, but ONLY to the people ON the stage, not the 1000 or so people sitting looking AT the stage. Tellingly, when he's conducting the orchestra, I really enjoyed watching him, he has a great physicality in those scenes. But every time he opened his mouth, I pretty much wanted to stab myself in the ear. In a surprise to nobody who's seen him in anything before ever, Tom Edden quietly steals every scene he is in.

And then there's the play. Criminally, I am going to say I don't think it has aged well. There are whole chunks of poorly shoehorned in exposition (and those two narrators were both VERY bad at delivering it) at the expense of any depth of character. A few times I thought "I'd rather read a book about Mozart than sit through this". And to give a play which clunks as often as this a staging which, well, clunks quite often, it doesn't make for the most enjoyable of times. The odd opening, with the pointed use of iPhones and half hearted modern touches like Krispy Kremes, and the seemingly endless repeating of "Salieri, Salieri", the bizarre dance versions of Mozart's music, the orchestra constantly milling about the place, wandering off and on, sometimes laying down for no reason at all, it made for a confusing, incoherent evening that was mostly dull.

Undoubtedly, it'll get 5 star raves tomorrow.

At Press Night tonight. I'm not special, was just at the right place & right time when Entry Pass tickets went on sale. Front row, too! Will keep an eye out for famous folk. Still excited to see it after some not-so-promising reviews on here, as it's still a play I'm really interested in seeing and I wasn't around when the original production was. Also doubly excited as I've been hooked on The Level on ITV, too!

They should have invited Peter Hall to shout in his dementia that tonight's production was dreadful and that his own was better.

Cemented your place as the Frankie Boyle of the board with that one, but without the sense of humour or (I assume) the beard.