AMADEUS Revival with Anthony Ramos — Page 2

Jarethan said: "henrikegerman said: "Jarethan said: "henrikegerman said: "love the idea of Ramos as Wolfie. Please please Rylance for Salieri.

If you're asking for bigger names, Cranston woukd ne my first choice.

yes in real life Salieri was only six years older than Mozart, but does it matter?"

I assume a show this big would need an open end, unless a John Doyle approach is used. It would be expensive to present and run.

in a year in which a just-Oscar winner did very good, but not great business (and I assume the investors lost a good part of their investment), I absolutely question whether any of those people could sell enough tickets, minus incredible reviews."

You talk about Chastain? Do we know the capitalization and the running costs for ''A Doll's House''??

"I'm sure this production only cost about 3 million and costs around 400-500k per week max."



I would imagine Ms Chastains salary would make the costs more that this.

As for "Amadeus" , Salieri is the key role and impossible to cast. I had the pleasure of seeing Mr McKellen's truly outstanding performance many times - both with Tim Curry and Jane Seymour and then with Peter Firth and Amy Irving (Ms Irving was so much better than Ms Seymour). I also saw most of the replacement casts : John Wood, Frank Langella, David Dukes and David Birney (who was truly horrible). I saw the miscast Broadway revival with David Suchet which had changes to the script, which did not work.I've also seen many regional productions. NO ONE has even come close to matching the electrifying performance that Mr McKellen gave. (I'm not including Murray Abraham's stellar performance in the film, the film and stage plays are two VERY different things.) Looking at who people have listed as possible Salieri's, most would not have what it takes to do this role justice.

Updated On: 6/6/23 at 10:25 AM

I'm sure she took a major salary cut, she's not doing this to pay her bills.

As for Amadeus... who wants ths?

For many years, I had only seen the film, which is one of my favorites of all time, with one of my favorite screen performances of all time from F. Murray Abraham, until I saw the recording Michael Longhurst's 2016 National Theatre production a few years ago, and I thought it was electrifying: a blend of modern and period, with the musicians featured prominently on stage. In lieu of a brand-new production, I'd love to see it transfer.

MadsonMelo said: "Jarethan said: "henrikegerman said: "Jarethan said: "henrikegerman said: "love the idea of Ramos as Wolfie. Please please Rylance for Salieri.

If you're asking for bigger names, Cranston woukd ne my first choice.

yes in real life Salieri was only six years older than Mozart, but does it matter?"

I assume a show this big would need an open end, unless a John Doyle approach is used. It would be expensive to present and run.

in a year in which a just-Oscar winner did very good, but not great business (and I assume the investors lost a good part of their investment), I absolutely question whether any of those people could sell enough tickets, minus incredible reviews."

You talk about Chastain? Do we know the capitalization and the running costs for ''A Doll's House''??"

Early on I read that it was capitalized at $6MM, which seems absurd, but that is what it said. If that is true, however, then I highly doubt it made its money back. Do not know the breakeven — they never announce that — but assuming it was $400k, even if every penny over breakeven went to the investors, which is not the case, it would be a squeaker.


The point that I was making is that a show as big as Amadeus would presumably require an open run or a much longer limited run to have any chance at recouping, and that I did not think any of the actors listed could guarantee big sales for a sufficient run. I did not notice Rylance’s name on the list…clearly he would sell a lot more tickets than David Suchet did (at least as I remember).

Coming off of an Oscar following some other great performances, a highly acclaimed TV show that will guarantee her more near-term award consideration, JC sold oodles of tickets (I only bought mine because of her presence), but it did not do as well as I expected; and none of the names on the list of potential Salieri’s seemed likely to sell as many tickets as JC did.

I'd love to see this at the Beaumont! Lincoln Center Theatre could afford to put on a lavish revival and attract a large cast. If CAMELOT doesn't extend (or even if it does through the holidays), I could see this come out by spring 2024.

I am so very concerned about rich people's money. It's one of my primary fixations in life.

TaffyDavenport said: "Pedro Pascal is having a moment right now, and he seems to me like someone who could attract a wide range of theatregoers."

Pedro Pascal is a wonderful actor, but in the stage version, Salieri is a huge, extremely demanding role with at least two very long and difficult monologues that were cut or severely trimmed for the film version. His act one closing speech is at least ten minutes long and is of epic, Shakespearean proportions (there are audios out there of Paul Scofield and Ian McKellan doing it, it’s amazing).

Anyway, it’s not the kind of part a film actor can “try their hand” at theater doing. You need someone like Benedict Cumberbatch who is the rare movie star who has also done multiple leading roles in classical theater and really has the chops. This is part of the reason why I am skeptical about this production actually happening, because casting Salieri for a Broadway run - especially for a play that is already costly to produce, and which is very much targeted at the ever-decreasing “boomer” crowd - is going to be tough. I really don’t think it was a good idea for Ramos to make this announcement so prematurely.

The Distinctive Baritone said: ". I really don’t think it was a good idea for Ramos to make this announcement so prematurely."

It doesn't cost anything to make this sort of announcement, & gets press. Plenty of people announce all sorts of shows that never happen.

Thank you, Joe. I didn't have the energy to get into Pedro Pascal's stage history, and, for what it's worth, I think he'd be a FAR more interesting choice than Benedict Cumberbatch.

Updated On: 6/7/23 at 09:42 AM

Raul Esparza, perhaps?

aislestorm2 said: "Raul Esparza, perhaps?"

He is not going to sell tickets. I can’t remember if he has lead anything since Leap of Faith, but that was a box office disaster. Gosh, how long has it been since he has been on Broadway? A real shame that it has been so long.