Amadeus - NT

Sorry, I've not even heard of that.

I was here tonight. It ran very long - about 3 hours 20 mins.

I thought it was just OK, but there were times it felt a bit loose, and the cast fluffed their lines on more than one occasion.

I found it a bit too 'surreal' in the way they portrayed the characters, and the COMPLETELY RANDOM modernisations, like with the Krispy Kremes and the mobile phones in some scenes was totally bizarre and took me out of the action. The transitions between scenes were not smooth at all, but you could put that down to it still being in previews.

I wasn't too fond of the two leading performances, though I thought Mozart's wife was very strong. I didn't get any sense of passion or believability. A tepid reaction at the end with the odd stander. I get the impression the cast haven't fully understood or decided how they would play their roles. I found Salieri's character a bit inconsistent.

The highlight was the orchestra - lovely touch, and utilised very well.

Oh dear. Maybe I should return my tickets.

Btw- if they don't use the drum revolve, it doesn't means it's because it's broken. They, erm, might just not want to.

I think you should return them or maybe exchange them for a later date in the hope that it will improve? The whole thing is a complete and utter mess at the moment. It doesn't look like a proper play, it's more like a badly rehearsed presentation of a play. A few people didn't comeback after the interval yesterday and around 22:30 there were several early leavers.

It looks like they are unable to use the revolve at the moment, therefore there's a lot of clumsy scene changes with both cast and crew dragging props from a place to another.

The stage movement was a shambles indeed. People bumping into each other, the set constantly being dragged all over the place and what there was to look at was really not worth the bother!

It was the first preview, so I'm sure that will improve. Can't say I think the same will happen for the performances. Salieri's awful monotonous barking delivery will take a lot of work to fix and Constanze is pretty much hamstrung by a voice that permanently sounds about as invested as if she's ordering a pizza.

I keep seeing on here people saying "maybe I should return" after one online review. Are we becoming the sheeple generation that is unwilling to think for itself?

If you were interested enough to buy tickets in the first place then one review shouldn't be putting you off, go with an open mind and see what happens, if its crap then its crap.

Any theatre trip will always be a lottery as to whether or not you like something, one persons Wicked will be another persons Gone With the Wind and vice versa. Certainly at least wait until there are sufficient reviews to be able to filter out the moaners and the orgasmers.

The drum is broken and unlikely to be fixed before the production ends in January, if they can't create a more simple set (It looks lovely but clearly impractical for the Olivier) then why did they firstly even bother staging this and not delay it until the drum gets fixed (which may be next year, which may be the 1st of never) and secondly whilst I disagree with your analysis about who was weak and who was strong in this production I agree the performances all need work (there is some good ensemble work though, particularly from Tom Edden) but I am sceptical it is something that can be fixed by January, let alone press night on 26 October. 

Crucially if the slow set changes are here to stay then so is that long running time and even if they do get it down to the 3 hours they were expecting then they should have done a King Lear and moved it to 7pm. 

The National Theatre of old could have pulled this off but it seems circumstances surrounding the production rather than the production it self (not perfect but it isn't a Damned By Despair) mean that epic plays just won't be a thing anymore. It just feels a bit of sad sight, this is better than a lot of recent productions but not one of their finest. 

Also running times are rarely known in advance. The problem is a system that encourages to book early to get the best deals and then reveals "Oh by the way it finishes at midnight" and London entertainment venues seem completely indifferent to those that travel in to London via public transport. Life is too short for terrible plays but life is also too short for excellent plays that make you miss the last train home. 

In fact, the Southbank Sinfonia provides the music, and the London Sinfonietta (an ensemble making new music) is preparing for its concert on Saturday at St John's Smith Square to conclude the day's Connect: The Audience as Artist conference at the Royal Festival Hall. www.londonsinfonietta.org.uk/connect-conference

Get in now if you want to hear dance interpretations of your favourite Mozart tracks!

(To be fair, there are only two, but they're not pretty)

Yes the text was changed by Shaffer a lot, the later Broadway text was significantly different to the original NT text. The real difference between the film and the play is the role of the audience, in the film the audience is of course absent. In the original NT production Salieri, speaking directly to the audience, drew them in and made them complicit in the action, it was electric.