The Vereinigte Buhnen Wien have announced a new musical about the life of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Following in the footsteps of the very successful musical Elisabeth, Mozart is the second musical about a famous Austrian person which will play at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Austria.

Mozart is written by Michael Kunze (book and lyrics) and Sylvester Levay (music), who were also responsible for the most successful German language musical ever, Elisabeth.

The part of Wolfgang Mozart will be played by young Norwegian actor Yngve Gasoy Romdal. His previous musical experience includes playing Marius in Les Miserables and Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera, both in Oslo, Norway. Other credits include Tony in West Side Story in Sweden and Joe Gillis in the German version of Sunset Boulevard. The father, Leopold Mozart, will be played by Thomas Borchert (among other roles, Buddy in the German The Buddy Holly Story, Luigi Lucheni in the Viennese Elisabeth and Jean Valjean in the German Les Miserables) and German musical star Uwe Kroger (the only German Rusty in Starlight Express, the Death in Elisabeth, Chris in Miss Saigon, Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard, the Beast in Disney's Beauty and the Beast) will play the Bishop Colloredo.

Mozart will be staged by German opera-director Harry Kupfer, who also directed Elisabeth in Vienna. The choreography is by Dennis Callahan (Elisabeth, Roman Polanski's Tanz der Vampire), set designs by Hans Schavernoch (Freudiana, Elisabeth) and costume designs by Yan Tax (Anatevka, Cyrano, Joe and the Dutch version of the musical Elisabeth).

Rehearsals for Mozart will start in July; the first night is planned for Oct. 2, 1999 at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Austria. -- by Maxim Bezembinder