Rebecca Finds Home at Shaftesbury Next Spring

The long-rumoured musical adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca is again making waves today (23 November 2010) prompted by a press release from Austrian musical theatre producers VBW Theater stating that the show will make its London debut in spring 2011 at London’s Shaftesbury Theatre.

The news of the new production broke shortly before the West End production of Flashdance The Musical, which is currently playing at the Shaftesbury, announced it would close early on 15 January 2011.

Based on the novel of the same name, Rebecca has book and lyrics by Michael Kunze and music by Sylvester Levay. The show premiered at Vienna’s Raimund Theater in September 2006, directed by Francesca Zambello. The English translation, adapted from its original German by Oscar-Award winning writer and translator Christopher Hampton, will be directed in the West End by Michael Blakemore.

The musical, which has received a number of international productions and has been workshopped in London, adheres closely to the original novel, famously made into an Oscar-winning 1940 Alfred Hitchcock film.

In Rebecca, following the death of his first wife Rebecca, Maxim de Winter returns to country estate Manderley, accompanied by his new wife. But the second Mrs de Winter soon discovers that the ghost of the seemingly perfect Rebecca still has a strong hold on her husband and his housekeeper Mrs Danvers.

Vienna producing house Vereinigte Bühnen Wien (VBW Theater) presented the Austrian premieres of Cats, Phantom of the Opera, The Producers and Les Miserables. The show is also produced by Global Broadway Productions who are currently touring Rachel Sheinkin’s musical adaptation of Little House on the Prairie in the United States. Both are hopeful that Rebecca will transfer across the Atlantic, with a Broadway production slated for 2012 in marketing material.