‘Feels very special’: Michael Sheen to star as Salieri in new production of Amadeus

The play about Mozart’s jealous rival – a co-production with the Welsh National Theatre set up by the actor last year – will open in Cardiff before a 16-week run in London’s West End Michael Sheen will return to the West End to star in a revival of Peter Shaffer’s award-winning Amadeus, opposite Callum Scott Howells as Mozart. Directed by Jeremy Herrin, the production will open at New Theatre Cardiff in March 2027, before transferring to the Noël Coward Theatre in London for a 16-week run in April. It marks the first major comeback of Shaffer’s play in over a decade. Sheen will play court composer Antonio Salieri, a role he previously played in Sydney in 2022, having earlier portrayed Mozart in the West End and Broadway in the late 1990s. The production reunites him with Howells, who makes his debut as Mozart after their collaboration on the BBC drama The Way. The show also marks the first time two Welsh actors have taken on the roles of Salieri and Mozart in the same production. It is a co-production between Second Half Productions and Welsh National Theatre – established by Sheen in 2025 with his own money, with himself as founding artistic director - in what will