Amadeus: An artist struggles with God at Steppenwolf

Peter Shaffer’s award winning play Amadeus now on at Steppenwolf Theatre is not really about the genius composer: it is about his rival Antonio Salieri.  The play is a highly fictionalized account of their rivalry, the facts of which many historians dispute. Shaffer tells a very good tale, though so maybe it's not so important that it be true, outside of the world that director Robert Falls has given us. And a side note: after the play and the movie came out, people started to revive Salieri's long lost music….

By putting on the play right now at this moment, it becomes a meditation on what art gets produced and what artists get supported based on the economic infrastructure of the times. It is a tale about how what is popular may not be what is great when it comes to Art, and it is a story about power, something we are all reckoning with as we leave the well lit world of the theatre.  This story underlines that there never has been such a thing as a meritocracy in music. Mozart died of poverty, and if Imperial Vienna could treat one of the greatest composers ever born like that, we should look at ourselves.  How many future geniuses didn’t know if their snap benefits were coming this month? Artists don’t fit well into capitalism, but they starved to death under monarchies and empires too.  Are we any different than the cruelty of that time? This thought makes watching Mozart’s decline particularly uncomfortable.   

This work is also a landmark role for the actor who must make Salieri live for us, a kind of modern Lear: here a wide ranging Ian Barford who goes from the top of his field to utter self hatred in the span of an evening. David Darrow’s Mozart is mercurial and makes it easy to see why the courtiers and power brokers found him hard to love. By pushing the envelope and digging deep into the arrested development of a child prodigy we come to feel compassion for what might have been.  Ora Jones and Sawyer Smith as the Venticello’s–a cross between spy and paparazzi, are delightful in an evil way, representing all of humanity's worst instincts.  Yasen Peyankov’s long suffering Baron Van Swieten tries to help Mozart but his patience runs out. He is a man of his class and his charity does not go very far.  Gregory Linington’s Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II is the kind of disconnected leader that led to the French Revolution. The kind of disconnected leader that is currently steering many countries…….

But the character I was suddenly most interested in was Jaye Ladymore’s Constanze Weber.  The script gives her very little to work with but given Mozart’s early demise and his lack of position, and the fact that he made few copies—how do we know his work today? Like Eliza Hamilton, she assured that his work was not lost to the dustbin of history. And apparently she was a musician as well. She had to become a shrewd keeper of Mozart’s manuscripts and legacy to survive.  Ladymore shows us a glimpse of her mettle in the scene where Constanze tries to angle for Mozart to become the musical tutor to the princess. 

The real conflict in the play is Salieri’s with his construction/ conception of his God.  The fact that he knows his music is not great and God has not given him the talent of Mozart poisons his soul. He becomes someone he does not recognize. Despite the trappings of success he never finds peace or happiness and perhaps this is a cautionary tale for all of us. It asks us what makes your life meaningful and good? 

Todd Rosenthal’s spare set manages to convey the Baroque nature of the court, but the broken windows in the grid show decay at the core. Amanda Gladu’s costumes are rich and still modern: they say period drama without encasing actors in unmovable brocade. 

This is a deep show, while also being entertaining.  As someone who has been an extra in many of Mozart 's operas.  there was a sense of joy at the end that despite it all we still have his music. And what music it is.  

Amadeus is playing Wednesdays through Sundays through January 25th, 2026 in the Ensemble Space in the round at Steppenwolf Theatre at 1650 N Halsted Street. For tickets, information and companion events go to https://www.steppenwolf.org/tickets--events/seasons-/2025-26/amadeus/

 No part of this article was created using AI

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