Rebecca (musical)

Background

As a teenager, Michael Kunze had read Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca. In the 1990s, he re-read it and decided that the story would make a good musical. He traveled to Cornwall, England, to find du Maurier's son in an attempt to obtain the rights to musicalize the work, which had been denied to other librettists. Attending a performance of Kunze's long-running 1992 musical Elisabeth in Vienna persuaded du Maurier's son that the novel would be in good hands with Kunze and his musical partner Sylvester Levay.

Writing the libretto took Kunze nearly two years, and Levay took another two years to compose the music. Workshops of the new musical were held in London, but did not lead to a West End production, although a 2003 demo recording in English was made, with Pia Douwes as Mrs. Danvers, Maike Boerdam as "I" and Uwe Kröger as Maxim de Winter. Workshops were also presented in Essen and Vienna.

Kunze and Levay formed a collaboration with American director Francesca Zambello and English set designer Peter J. Davison. In early 2005, they decided to launch the musical in Vienna, Austria, with the production company Vereinigte Bühnen Wien, which had previously produced Kunze's musicals Elisabeth, Tanz der Vampire (Dance of the Vampires), and Mozart!.

Act I

A young woman, Ich, dreamily walks among "shadows"; in the background, Manderley appears destroyed by fire ("Ich hab getraumt von Manderley"). Ich reveals her "maid" clothes, as she is transported to a 1930s hotel in Monte Carlo. Her employer is a wealthy American, Mrs. Van Hopper ("Du wirst niemals eine Lady"). Widowed, aristocratic Maxim de Winter enters, as the hotel guests gossip ("Er verlor unerwartet seine Frau, Rebecca"). In the dramatic hills near Monte Carlo, Maxim kisses Ich; the inexperienced girl is swept off her feet by his worldly charm. Back in the hotel, Ich is alone ("Zeit in einer Flashe") Maxim comes in and asks Ich to marry him.

Maxim and Ich honeymoon in Italy and then drive up to his stately Cornwall estate, Manderley. The servants enter ("Die neue Mrs. de Winter"). The haughty Mrs. Danvers oversees the well-organized servants; she is cold and hostile to Ich. Later, in the morning room, Mrs. Danvers is alone ("Sie ergibt sich nicht"). Ich comes in and accidentally breaks a statue of Cupid; she is frightened. She fears that she is an unworthy replacement for Maxim's beautiful, elegant and mysterious first wife, Rebecca. Beatrice and Giles arrive in a happy mood ("Die lieben verwandten"). In the library, Ich becomes tipsy ("Bist du glücklich - Bist du böse"). At night, Ich and Maxim are in love ("Hilf mir durch die Nacht"). At her house, Beatrice reflects on her affection for her brother ("Was ist nur los mit ihm"). In Rebecca's room, Favell tries Mrs. Danvers' patience ("Sie war gewohnt geliebt zu werden"), arguing about Rebecca's diary. Ich comes in and meets Favell. In worshipful terms, Mrs. Danvers tells Ich about Maxim's first wife, Rebecca, who drowned while sailing on Maxim's sailboat a year earlier. There was a rumor that Rebecca had been expecting a baby.

Maxim is at his golf club ("Wir sind British"). Later, Ben is in the boat house ("Sie's fort") and meets Maxim's ("Gott, warum"). Frank Crawley is in his office ("Ehrlichkeit und vertrauen"). Later at a ball at Manderley, everyone is waltzing ("Der Ball von Manderley"). Mrs. Van Hopper enters ("I'm an American Woman"). Ich is in her room in a dress taken from a portrait of the Maxim's great-aunt ("Heut' nacht verzauber' ich die Welt"). She emerges and begins to descend the staircase to the party. The guests froze in horror, and Maxim bursts into fury and Ich runs upstairs crying. Mrs. Danvers looks on malevolently.

Act II

At night, Ich stands outside Rebecca's room, while Mrs. Danvers is inside the room ("Und das, und das, und das"). Mrs. Danvers makes Ich uncomfortable and she runs off when Mrs. Danvers menaces her ("Tu nicht, was sie empört!" ... "Nur ein schritt"). At the seaside, the people of Cornwall find the remains of a shipwreck ("Flotsam and Jetsam"). Ich runs to the boat house and sees Ben and a disheveled, Maxim, who had gone to help the sailors ("Now she has returned" ... "No smile was ever so cold"). Maxim is suspected of having killed Rebecca, and an investigation is taking place. The next morning in the house, Beatrice and Ich discuss how to be a confident woman. Ich confronts Mrs. Danvers and makes some changes in the house's decor ("Mrs. de Winter bin Ich"). Ich is now a confident woman; when she breaks the Cupid statue again, she is no longer frightened. Ich stands by her husband and takes the initiative to find out why Rebecca visited her doctor.

At a nearby courtroom a hearing takes place, and Maxim and Horridge are at odds. Ich faints, and everyone returns to Manderley. Danvers and Favell arrive at Manderley and go to the library. Mrs. Danvers leaves and Favell remains on the library ("Eine Hand wäscht die andre"). Favell tries to bribe Maxim with a letter from Rebecca. Jack calls Mrs. Danvers and asks for Rebecca's diary ("Sie was gewohnt geliebt zu werden"). Ich decides to go London to see Rebecca's doctor. The servants and Mrs. Danvers comment on the situation ("Sie fuhr'n um acht"). Maxim picks up a phone call from Ich. It turns out that Rebecca was terminally ill. It seems likely that she instigated her own death. Mrs. Danvers overhears and learns that Rebecca was going to die of cancer.

After this liberating news, Maxim can finally remove the picture of Rebecca from Manderley and give his undivided love to his new wife. Maxim picks up Ich at the train station in Cornwall, and they kiss passionately ("Jenseits der Nacht"). But far away there is a red glow in the sky. Manderley is burning! Maxim and Ich hurry home as the servants run around with buckets of water ("Feuer, feuer, Manderley in Flammen!"). Mrs. Danvers stands inside the house at the top of the staircase dressed in Rebecca's nightgown, holding a candelabra in her hand as the flames consume Manderley. Maxim and Ich arrive, and Frank runs towards them. Inside, Danvers inclines the candles to the stairway handrail and sets it on fire. The house collapses and Mrs. Danvers perishes in the flames together with her memories of Rebecca.

Ich walks dreamily in darkness ("Ich hab getraumt von Manderley" (reprise)). Everyone except Maxim is standing among Manderley's ruins, but now the shadows have faces. Under a bright blue sky, Maxim holds his hand out to Ich who runs to him, and they kiss.

Vienna

Rebecca had its world premiere at the Raimund Theater in Vienna, in German, in September 2006, "where it played to sold-out houses totaling more than three years". It was directed by Zambello and choreographed by Denni L. Sayers, with production design by Davison, with costumes by Birgit Hutter and lighting by Andrew Voller. The cast starred Wietske van Tongeren as "Ich" ("I"), Uwe Kröger as Maxim and Susan Rigvava-Dumas as Mrs. Danvers.

Variety magazine considered the Vienna production a "dream of a show", adding:

Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay deliver a work every bit as compelling as their hit Elisabeth, the most successful German-language musical of all time, while Francesca Zambello's dazzling, cinematic production offers storytelling at its best, clearly defining the whirlpool of emotions experienced by the three tortured principal characters. ... Kunze's deft lyrics take us deep into the psyches of the never-named heroine (simply called "I"); moody, mercurial Maxim de Winter; obsessive Mrs. Danvers; and even the late Rebecca herself. Levay knows how to write tunes that jam in your head; he delivers the goods with Mrs. Danvers' haunting "Rebecca" and the anthem "The Power of a Woman in Love". ... Designer Peter J. Davison stunningly captures the atmosphere, from heady summer nights on the Riviera to the oppressive decay of Manderley.Wietske Van Tongeren has all the endearing pipsqueak qualities to make the nameless heroine endearing, expertly conveying the slow transformation from little brown mouse to confident, strong woman. Her performance is marred only by her screechy pop vocal production. ... Kroger has built a substantial career on his pretty-boy looks. As Maxim, they work against him: He seems too young, too fey, too lightweight for such a haunted, world-weary character. His singing, while impassioned, is merely adequate, but he rises to the challenge of confessing his hatred for Rebecca in "No Smile Was Ever as Cold". ... Mrs. Danvers gets the best music, and in Susan Rigvava-Dumas has found a perfect interpreter. ... With a rich mezzo-soprano as her weapon, she embodies evil born of passion and jealousy in a multi-layered turn.

Reviewing the Vienna production on a night when an understudy was playing the protagonist "I", the critic of The Times, Benedict Nightingale, praised the fidelity of the plot to du Maurier's original and rated the staging "up to the most lavish West End visual standards. ... Only the shipwreck that leads to the discovery of Rebecca's body disappoints – and only a gallumphingly Wodehousean golfing number (Wir Sind Britisch) needs excising." Nightingale judged the ending of the musical "forgivably ... a bit more upbeat than the novel's." He found the dancing dull and the music "seldom harsh or imaginative enough" despite "a terrific central song, a soaring, grieving tribute" to Rebecca by "Susan Rigvava Dumas's mesmeric Danvers". He said of Kröger's Max, "though white-hot at moments of crisis, [he] hasn't quite the mix of brooding inwardness and outer sang froid the character needs."

2008 Japan production

Rebecca was then produced at the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo, opening on April 6, 2008.

European productions

The musical was performed in Helsinki, Finland, at the Helsingin kaupunginteatteri (Helsinki City Theatre) from August 28, 2008 to May 9, 2009. as well as in Kouvola, Finland, at the Kouvolan Teatteri, 11. Sebtember 2010.Rebecca played in Budapest, Hungary, on 18 and 19 March 2010 (and later in repertory).

On February 7, 2014 the musical opened in Malmö, Sweden at Malmö Opera. Director was Åsa Melldahl and Musical Director Anders Eljas.

Productions have also played in Stuttgart, Germany; St. Gallen, Switzerland; Moscow, Russia; Belgrade, Serbia and Bucharest, Romania.

2009 West End readings

In 2009, Ben Sprecher co-produced two English-language readings of Rebecca, hoping to mount a London West End production. The first London workshop in May 2009 featured Lisa O'Hare as "I", Julian Ovenden as Maxim and Anna Francolini. In October 2009, a second reading featured Sierra Boggess as "I", Brent Barrett as Maxim and Pia Douwes as Mrs. Danvers. The English-language book was written by Christopher Hampton in collaboration with Kunze.

U.S. reading and Broadway production

A reading took place on March 18, 2011 in New York, directed by Michael Blakemore and Francesca Zambello. The cast featured Boggess as "I", Hugh Panaro as Maxim, Carolee Carmello as Mrs. Danvers and James Stacy Barbour as Jack Favell. A Broadway production of the musical was announced twice during 2012, to be co-directed by Blakemore and Zambello. However, the producers cancelled both times after financing for the production fell through, even though there were $1 million in advance ticket sales. In October 2012, The New York Times reported that four of the "investors" in the proposed Broadway production never existed. Following criminal investigations by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Manhattan, the middleman who fabricated the fictitious investors, and received $60,000 in fees, was arrested and charged with fraud. In January 2013, producer Ben Sprecher told an interviewer that he hoped to mount the show on Broadway later in 2013. Although after completing an investigation the Securities and Exchange Commission pursued no action against Sprecher and his partner, the producers were unable to raise enough funding for a 2014 Broadway opening. The Rebecca producers are now aiming for a 2016 Broadway opening.

2013 Korean production

Rebecca premiered in Korea on January 2013, and was met with both critical and commercial success. The cast included Yoo Jun-sang, Ryu Jung-han, and Oh Man-seok as Maxim, Lim Hye-young and Kim Bo-kyung as "I", and Ock Joo-hyun and Shin Young-sook as Mrs. Danvers. In the 2013 7th Annual Musical Awards, the production won 5 awards, with Ock Joo-hyun as the Best Featured Actress, Robert Johanson as the Best Director, Jung Seung-Ho as the Best Scenic Designer, Jack Mehler as the Best Lighting Designer, and Kim Ji-Hyeon as the Best Sound Designer.

Roles and original cast

The following is the original Vienna principal cast:

"Ich" ("I"): Wietske van Tongeren

Maxim de Winter: Uwe Kröger

Mrs. Danvers: Susan Rigvava-Dumas

Mrs. Van Hopper: Carin Filipcic

Beatrice: Kerstin Ibald

Jack Favell: Carsten Lepper

Frank Crawley: André Bauer

Ben: Norberto Bertassi

Songs in the original production

This list includes a literal translation of the German song titles into English

Recordings

The original Vienna cast recording, Rebecca – Das Cast Album, a studio recording, was released on 24 November 2006. It has 22 tracks. It peaked number 18 on the Ö3 Austria Top 75 album chart.

One of the songs from the show, "The Power of a Woman in Love", was released in English, as a single sung by Gloria Gaynor, prior to the Viennese premiere.

Rebecca – Gesamtaufnahme Live (Rebecca – Complete Recording Live) was recorded on 6 and 7 June 2007. The 2-CD live recording was released on 19 October 2007. Its 44 tracks include the entire production, including all spoken dialogue and songs. The recording also includes a bonus track: Marika Lichter, who performed Mrs. Van Hopper from the summer of 2007 through the end of 2007, singing "I'm an American Woman".

Rebecca – Original Japanese Cast Recording was released on March 5 of 2010. The CD has 10 tracks, including "Zauberhaft Natürlich", which was written for this production.

Rebecca – Original Hungarian Cast Recording was released on May 22, 2010. It includes 16 tracks.