For four months, Australian director Craig Ilott and the producers of a new production of the 1979 play Amadeus, by the late British playwright Peter Shaffer, had been searching for their Mozart, seeking an actor organically fine-tuned to modulate Wolfgang’s manic giggles, yet strut with confidence in his God-given musical genius.

This was no small order, for there are cautionary tales in at least one past portrayal of the famous composer. Most importantly, this Mozart had to match the stage presence of Michael Sheen, the Welsh screen star of The Queen, Frost/Nixon and Masters of Sex, who made his lauded Broadway debut as Mozart in a 1999 production of Amadeus, opposite David Suchet as his envious rival Antonio Salieri.

Rahel Romahn Lily Balatincz in Amadeus

Rahel Romahn and Lily Balatincz will play Mozart and his wife Constanze in Amadeus at the Sydney Opera House. Photo © Daniel Boud

Sheen has agreed to make his first trip to Australia to perform in the new production at the Sydney Opera House, this time as Salieri, the self-described “patron saint of mediocrity”. 

The Concert Hall staging will be a...