This month, the cast of “Amadeus,” directed by Lansing theater veteran Amy Rickett, will take to the stage of the Riverwalk Theatre in full period costumes and a surfeit of hairstyles.
“This is the largest cast and the first period piece I’ve ever directed. Just the technical aspects alone are larger than I ever could’ve imagined,” Rickett said.
The local community has turned out in full force, not only to audition but to volunteer for backstage work and the enormous task of costuming the 19 actors in historical garb.
Taylor Haslett, who plays Constanze Weber, the wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, said, “Some of these pieces have been built entirely from scratch by the wonderful women who work at the costume shop. It’s incredible to see the accuracy and how detailed they are — and for just one production! I’m so honored to wear these amazing dresses and the wigs that they have found and styled so beautifully. I think that’s something that will really wow the audience.”
The show centers on the fraught relationship between Mozart and rival composer Antonio Salieri. In a twist, the show’s titular character, Mozart, isn’t the protagonist.
Jeff Magnuson, who plays Salieri, called the role “the great theatrical challenge of my life.”
“I’ve never done Shakespeare, but I imagine there are some parallels to some of the great Shakespearean roles. There’s so much variety to this character and his journey throughout the script,” he said. “He has some qualities that are very unattractive. Through a modern lens, we would view him critically. An equivalent might be “Breaking Bad,” where you have to balance liking and disliking the person in the center of the story. You judge their humanity and think, ‘How would I behave, given these circumstances?’”
Magnuson nodded to local classical music enthusiasts and WKAR aficionados, saying, “I love our passionate Mozart and Salieri enthusiasts, but this play isn’t history. I believe it’s a parable, telling the story of how far one might go because of envy, jealousy and striving to be an artist. It’s such a beautiful story.”
Mozart is played by Lewis Elson, who said his character isn’t what most people will expect.
“He’s almost an accidental genius,” he said. “You’re expecting him to come in wearing tops and tails and be very posh, but he comes in making fart jokes and being a cad. In his first scene, he’s pretending to be a cat!”
Elson said he had been eyeing this role for some time and feels he’s finally getting to an age where he can tackle more complex characters.
Haslett shared a similar sentiment about her readiness to explore more nuanced roles.
“Constanze has a really beautiful arc. She starts off as a naive character who admires Mozart so much. That love never dies, but the struggles catch up to her,” she said. “She’s that background character that works so hard to support him, but many of the things she does go unseen and unappreciated. She lives a really full life on stage.”
Elson said that while the play is enormously comedic, he believes it’s ultimately a tragic tale. The relationship between the two men is complicated and travels toward darkness as the show progresses.
“Salieri was the much more accomplished and well-regarded musician of his time,” he said. “Mozart was a precocious child. I think of him like a young Michael Jackson, being dragged around to perform for all those people when he was just a child. Mozart was a savant, and he never grew up. He attaches a fatherly thing to the older men in the show. He probably had some daddy issues.”
Rickett saw the play in the late 1980s, and it immediately captivated her.
“I’m not proficient in classical music,” she said. “I know who Mozart is, but the story itself is really what resonated with me.”
She decided to submit the play for consideration at Riverwalk last year.
“I’ve been acting and directing in this community for over 30 years, and it’s all volunteer. It’s an enormous amount of time, so you want to make sure the piece you’re working on, that you have the passion for it,” she said. “This is what drew me in: What would cause Salieri to systematically plan the demise of Mozart? What’s going on in there?”
Haslett added, “It’s easy to joke about taking a side, who you think is wrong in this feud where both men don’t necessarily know what’s going on, and the competition is inherently there. But I want the audience to take away the validity of both characters as individuals. We can easily see ourselves in our daily lives as both of these people.”
Rickett said the experience of working with so many talented actors has been incredible.
“It’s been very challenging, which is really good. It always fires me up when I’m working with a great script and a talented cast. It feels like I’ve been working on this play in my head for over a year, and the last eight weeks have been a lot of hard work.”
She also briefly discussed the experience of directing her husband, Magnuson, as Salieri.
“We’ve worked together for 30 years, and we’ve been married for 22. We have a shared passion for theater and how we work on our craft. We’re like-minded in that way,” she said. “In directing him, we’re speaking the same language. But to save the cast time, we’re always talking at home. We never put that down — the creative collaboration between the two of us is something that we love.”
For most, community theater means working a full-time job, and the attending rehearsals from 7 to 10:30 p.m. five nights a week for two months. It’s a labor of love. But for Rickett, it couldn’t be more fulfilling.
“I come home from rehearsals, and I’m completely energized,” she said.
She hopes the community will come out and support the production, which has tapped the talent and contributions of so many volunteers.
In Magnuson’s recollection, this show hasn’t been attempted in the Lansing area since at least the early 1990s, in part because of its production requirements.
“I think there are a handful of shows that are very delicate, and it’s hard to do them justice within a community theater setting. I’ve been very fortunate to be part of a couple of those throughout the last 35 years,” he said, adding, “I have the feeling that this is going to be one of the special ones.”
March and early April theater productions:
March 6-10
8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday
2 p.m. Wednesday, Saturday-Sunday
Williamston Theatre
122 S. Putnam St., Williamston
williamstontheatre.org
Ixion Ensemble Theatre
March 8-9
8 p.m.
Stage One at Sycamore Creek Eastwood
2200 Lake Lansing Road, Lansing
facebook.com/IxionEnsemble
MSU Department of Theatre
March 8-10 and 15-17
7 p.m. Friday
11 a.m. Saturday-Sunday
3 p.m. March 9-10
6 p.m. March 16
Arena Theatre
542 Auditorium Road, East Lansing
theatre.msu.edu
March 14-17 and 21-24
7 p.m. Thursday
8 p.m. Friday-Saturday
2 p.m. Sunday
Riverwalk Theatre
228 Museum Drive, Lansing
riverwalktheatre.com
Ixion Ensemble Theatre
March 22-23 and 29-30
8 p.m.
Stage One at Sycamore Creek Eastwood
2200 Lake Lansing Road, Lansing
facebook.com/IxionEnsemble
April 2-14
7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday
8 p.m. Friday-Saturday
2 p.m. Saturday
1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday
Wharton Center Cobb Great Hall
750 E. Shaw Lane, East Lansing
whartoncenter.com
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