Drama Review: "Amadeus" Still Thrills In This Superb Revival

“Amadeus,” Pasadena Playhouse, Feb. 11 - Mar. 15, 2026

Feb. 18, 2026 | By Bruce R. Feldman

In Brief: Peter Shaffer’s florid period drama was a huge hit in London and on Broadway in the early 1980s. It holds up well some 45 years on, but the real pleasure in Pasadena Playhouse’s lavish staging is Jefferson Mays’s bravura lead performance.

Jefferson Mays in Amadeus at Pasadena Playhouse (Photo: Jeff Lorch)

Let’s give author Peter Shaffer his due. He took two historical figures – the 18th Century classical composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri – set aside the truth about their relationship, recast them as fierce adversaries, and wrote a barn burner of a play about their imagined rivalry.

The first-rate revival of Amadeus now at Pasadena Playhouse is the work of director Darko Tresnjak and a talented design team who have burnished the piece to a glossy sheen that embraces all of the playwright’s fanciful notions, sinister innuendos, and shady characters with style and relish.

In Shaffer’s account, Salieri was a successful, admired composer at the court of Austrian ruler Joseph II. (That much is true.) When Mozart shows up in Vienna seeking fame, or at least a job, Salieri instantly recognizes the boy’s genius and becomes fearful that the newcomer’s talents will be seen as superior and put him out of business. (That may or may not be true or might be somewhat true.)

Jefferson Mays and Sam Clemmett in Amadeus at Pasadena Playhouse (Photo: Jeff Lorch)

Thus begins Salieri’s ominous scheme to sideline the prodigy and destroy his reputation by disparaging him to the emperor, courtiers, and Viennese machers. At the same time, Salieri begins a false friendship with Mozart, pretending to sympathize with his plight and offering to help him advance. (Of course, he doesn’t.)

For his part, Mozart is in many ways his own worst enemy. He drinks too much. He’s arrogant, rude, and unwilling to abide by the conventions of polite society. He’d have a difficult time breaking through even without Salieri’s shenanigans.

Shaffer has Salieri, just before his death at age 75, confess to poisoning Mozart. It’s a last gasp effort to restore his long-forgotten legacy (Mozart’s renown has only increased) and exorcise his demons. Shaffer makes it clear that Salieri’s extended, ignominious life is the price the composer paid for defaming Mozart.

(This is another of Shaffer’s dramatic inventions. There’s no evidence that Salieri had anything to do with Mozart’s death. Historians believe that he died of an infection or natural causes.)

Matthew Patrick Davis as Emperor Joseph II, Sam Clemmett as Mozart (Photo: Jeff Lorch)

As Mozart, Sam Clemmett is a little flat in the first act. He blossoms in the second act where he is given much more to do. This is where we see the composer go from brash young man with a future to, in his eyes, a failure as a musician, husband, and provider, all in the brief decade before his untimely death at age 35. That is despite his having written his three great operas during that time, Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro, and The Magic Flute, portions of which are effectively presented in the play.

Mays is electrifying as the explosive, conniving Salieri. He is something to see. While there’s a lot that impresses in this satisfying revival, likely his imposing star turn is what you will be talking about most as you head back to town on the 110 Freeway.

Shaffer’s play is a kind of dramma giocoso, an opera that combines serious themes and plot elements with comedy, usually ending in an intense final scene – like Mozart's divine Don Giovanni. And while it may be made of nearly whole cloth, Amadeus still has plenty of starch in it to keep an audience on its toes.

We can thank Shaffer for his audacity and dramatic invention, Pasadena Playhouse for taking the show out for classy spin, and the magnificent Jefferson Mays for making it the thrill ride that it is.

“Amadeus,” Pasadena Playhouse, 39 South El Molino Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101, 626-356-7529, pasadenaplayhouse.org