Amadeus

The way Mozart defied expectations of his contemporaries, so this production defies our expectations. On a tiny stage, director August Viverito creates imperial palaces, opera houses, apartments, and a pauper's grave. And he has cast a young actor to play Salieri. Why not? Just because the likes of David Suchet and Ian McKellen have played him since Peter Shaffer's play was first produced, in 1980? Why can't the actor be of an age closer to the composer's when he, possibly, interacted with the 25-year-old Mozart?

So, onto the stage comes Peter Swander, seeming far too young to be able to enact the pathologically jealous Salieri. How wrong we are. Swander's extraordinary portrayal is clear, impassioned, secure, mature, and smartly calibrated. Alternately repulsed by the scatological man-child Mozart and spellbound by his never-surpassed talents, this Salieri is a brilliantly crafted mass of contradictions with a single-minded purpose.

We can't expect him to be matched by the actor playing Mozart. Again expectations are wrong. Patrick Stafford brings hugely frenetic energy to the role while making every single, passionate second completely believable. Yes, there's the earthbound falsetto giggle of this "obscene child," but Stafford meanwhile seems otherworldly. Not only is the actor living in Mozart, but Mozart is living in and loving his every moment, happy or painful. Holding her own between the two men, Danielle Doyen likewise fully fleshes Constanze. Out of the actor's fragile frame comes a big, rich, color-filled speaking voice. David Stifel, Dan Alemshah, Barry Saltzman, and David Robert May add elegance to the supporting roles.

Think the costuming would be 18th-century? Viverito garbs his cast in modern attire (Shon LeBlanc), enhancing the feeling we're also watching backstabbing Hollywood. While most wear business suits, Mozart seems fresh off Melrose Avenue, in gold-leather trousers and other iconoclastic oddities, his hair in a wildly feathery coiffure.

At the play's end, Salieri laments that mediocrity is everywhere. Well, at least it cannot be found on this stage.

Presented by the Production Company at the Chandler Studio Theatre, 12443 Chandler Blvd, North Hollywood. June 18–Indefinite. Fri.–Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m. (800) 838-3006. www.theprodco.com.