Amadeus takes place in 18th century Vienna, but in Folger Theatre’s latest production, it’s more like the inside of a musician’s mind. The action onstage is flanked by soaring strings of a harp, almost threatening to crash down on the composers below, who are obsessed with creating the perfect opera. It’s elegant, if awfully on the nose. Which is an excellent way to describe this well-acted, somewhat bloated production about jealousy, ambition, and religion.

Peter Shaffer’s Tony-winning play about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart turns 40 this year, and the movie that followed in 1984 won eight Academy Awards. Both are narrated by Antonio Salieri, Mozart’s older rival.

As Salieri describes, after having prayed for God to grant him the gift of musical genius in his youth, he’s frustrated by the arrival of Hamilton Mozart, a wunderkind who practically breathes musical notes, to the court of Emperor Joseph II (scenes of the cartoonishly clique-y court are the strongest in the show). Convinced that God has forsaken him, Salieri vows to destroy his young frenemy.

The thing is: It’s tough to blame him. As Mozart, Samuel Adams is painfully obnoxious—intentionally so. He makes dirty jokes to his long-suffering wife (Lilli Hokama), drinks to excess, dons marshmallowy wigs in rainbow hues, and brags endlessly about his own talent. And just like in the film, Adams gives his Mozart a bubbly, pervasive giggle that haunts Salieri. All the while, he churns out masterpieces that score the play: The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and The Magic Flute, among them.

Meanwhile, as an increasingly beaten-down Salieri, Ian Merrill Peakes (who has made playing paranoid guys sort of his thing at Folger) owns the stage in a towering, exhausting performance. He descends further into his obsession, committing increasingly vile acts along the way to foil Mozart. But like the play, his mania seems unfocused: A thread about Salieri’s star pupil having an affair with Mozart goes nowhere, and the nemeses final confrontation feels curiously deflated.

After explaining his gripes again and again to his audience for the nearly three hour runtime, Salieri isn’t able to give Mozart a piece of his mind. As these musicians might say, it’s endless crescendo, with no climax.

Amadeus runs at Folger Theatre through Dec. 22. Tickets $25-$85. Runtime approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes with one intermission.