#amadeus 1982

Peter Shaffer's Amadeus, dir. Peter Hall (1982-83 Broadway Tour)

JOHN WOOD as Antonio Salieri MARK HAMILL as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart MICHELE SEYLER as Constanze Weber

After playing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on tour for a year in Amadeus, [Mark Hamill] perfected a high-pitched, annoying laugh that he utilized when auditioning for the smiling villain. "Apparently," he says, “that’s what got me the part, the laugh. One thing that's great about doing the character is he's just such a rich loony.”

"Second-string Mozart"

(Carolyn Clay; The Boston Phoenix)

Amadeus, as has been remarked, is not about Salieri and Mozart, though snatches of the latter's music add immeasurably to the drama. The real duel is between Salieri and God, who, the mortal is convinced, mocks him through Mozart. "The creature's dreadful giggle," he concludes, is "the laughter of God." And rudeness in a totem is not to be tolerated [...] The inimitable John Wood, all reptilian mannerisms and impish intensity, blue eyes burning through a phlegmy haze, [...] an actor as affected as the 18th century and doubtless more talented than Salieri, gives a virtuoso performance that impresses the hell out of you without convincing for one minute. It's a performance that suits the play, which is spectacular and studied and intellectually glib. Like Amadeus itself, with its stately swells and verbal sturm und drang, Wood is full of flash. With superb confidence he indicates Salieri's visceral involvement in Mozart's art — which reduces his rival to twitches, paroxysms, sighs of rage and supplication. But even at his best, Wood's Salieri is a force, not a person. He looks like Ichabod Crane, but he's Darth Vader in velvet knickers.

"Mozart not so classy"

(Claudia Jackson, photo by John Montrose; The Phoenix)

[Playwright Peter] Shaffer, who also wrote "Equus," paints an unflattering picture of Mozart as a childlike and arrogant young composer in the 18th century court of Emperor Joseph II [...] Hamill said, "Mozart was so insulting and uncouth [...] I thought of him as a kid who had been the star of a hit TV series since he was four years old. The show gets cancelled and the kid has to go to a public high school just like everyone else," he said. Hamill said the "kid" is spoiled. "There was always someone to do everything for him. Like Mozart, the kid can't deal with the real world by himself." Hamill said he thought Mozart was uncouth because of his mother. "She wrote him a letter with 150 functions of the anus. Man, those people were loose." "I've put my foot in my mouth more times than I can remember, but not like him," Hamill said.