John Doyle to direct Amadeus

Sounds goofy.

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"...a production of Amadeus where the whole cast will also play the Mozart."

Huh? Someone explain. I don't understand what that means.

"play the Mozart" means they will be playing Mozart's music.

Bring on the director flogging.

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Thanks folks. For a moment I thought that the entire cast was going to play the role of Mozart (wouldn't put it past Doyle) or that was a reference to a keyboard.

Not sure why they would considering Amadeus is a nonmusical play with no (or little) live music. Though I will say that doing the Mozart Requiem -- a recording of which is used in Act Two -- with a dozen players rather than a recording with full orchestra and chorus can't help but sound a bit anemic and have less impact. If, that is, what Doyle is planning on doing.

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Updated On: 5/17/06 at 07:25 PM

I'm being fairly facetious; I mean, you KNOW someone's going to say it.

... I don't think he'll have two shows simultaneously on Broadway for long, if at all. And, they're different enough; he's not taking over the world, and other directors aren't emulating the concept, so it's not like a huge debacle.

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I'm hoping they all play the character of Mozart, and it would be something along the lines of "Sybil" with Sally Field.

maybethistime --- Your av photo of Beth says it all.

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After having worked with this man, and seeing what an artist he is...not a 'commercial' man by any means, I can tell you that I would follow him to the end of the earth to work with him again.
Company is very different from Sweeney even though there are instrument playing actors involved. If you ever have a chance to hear John Doyle speak....go. His idea of theatre is that it is about the story telling of a piece. ANY piece. The instrument playing is just because early on it saved money for the theatres that couldn't afford to do good shows. Now 15 years later it has evolved into a way to tell the story that actually extends the characters. My flute, or sax or whatever helps me say things that my character can't say. It is even more obvious in Company than in Sweeney that our instruments are a part of our character developement. That is why Bobby can't even sit down to play the piano until Being Alive.

John really is the most brilliant person I have ever worked with in theatre, and I wish more people stuck to their artistic ideas and didn't sell out to commercial pressures. Case in point...he has kept allll of us in Company and not sold out to pressure from the FOUR producers who bid on our show. Who has FOUR producers come out to Cincinnati and bid on his shows? And how do you get FOUR producers to bid on the show anyway? You do good work. Good Artistic work...and they you...don't care what the public thinks. You tell the story.
You use very little in the way of distracting props or sets...or flying cars or chandeliers dropping....and you actually see the instruments disappear at some point about 10 min. into the show. Of course not all shows are meant to be done this way...and they won't. But the 5 week reh process we had with him was so collaborative and enlightning...and it made us all remember why we got into theatre in the first place.

OH...and none of us were cast out of Ohio. One lived there for a bit...me....but we all live out here now.

Do go see anything you can find that has john doyle talking about his technique and his ideas. I am actually publishing a behind the scenes book about it with pix and stories.

John Doyle is not afraid of shaking things up a bit to get at the truth and the story of a show.

It was interesting and revoluationary the first couple of times. Now it's becoming an over-used gimmick. Doyle needs to move on to a new gimmick because the critics (if not audiences) will get tired of these musician-actor productions at some point.

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sucked all the life out? gimme a break, the man is a genius. I just wish i could travel to the U.K. to see this. I'm very disappointed that it won't be on broadway. Amadeus is responsible for who I am today and I would kill just to see it.

I could see this possibly being the best use of his cast/musician concept yet, since the music is used more to punctuate and underscore rather than express dramatic throughline.