The late Peter Shaffer’s best-known play is made to ring loudly and clearly in this new production that kicks off the Sydney Opera House’s 50th year. Loud and clear, but somewhat hollow.

Yes, it is unlike any Amadeus you may have ever seen before and it has (as this play must) a charismatic actor-storyteller – the Welsh stage and screen star Michael Sheen in this case – at its centre. Musically, it benefits enormously from having Mozart’s music played live by an onstage orchestra. For those of us who have only seen Amadeus with a canned soundtrack, it’s a rare treat.

Michael Sheen in Amadeus. Photo © Daniel Boud/Sydney Opera House

But the overall impression in its two-hours-50-minutes of stage time is of a potentially stirring drama drowned out by a presentation that tries to make something very shiny, very Sydney of Shaffer’s Vienna.

Directed by Craig Ilott (who directed the rock musical American Idiot in this venue in 2018 and whose Velvet Rewired is currently playing in the Opera House Studio), this production is the result of a first-time collaboration between Sydney’s veteran independent theatre producers Red Line Productions (who...