Rebecca (musical) Rebecca (musical) Rebecca is a German-language musical based on the novel of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. It was written by Michael Kunze (book and lyrics) and Sylvester Levay (music), the authors of the musicals "Elisabeth", "Mozart!" and "Marie Antoinette". The plot, which adheres closely to the original novel, revolves around wealthy Maxim DeWinter, his naïve new wife, and Mrs. Danvers, the manipulative housekeeper of DeWinter's Cornish estate Manderley. Mrs. Danvers resents the new wife's intrusion and persuades the new wife that she is an unworthy replacement for the first Mrs. DeWinter, the glamorous and mysterious Rebecca, who
Philip MacDonald and Michael Hogan adapted the novel "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier, from which Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison created the screenplay for "Rebecca", the 1940 film. Sherwood and Harrison were nominated for an Academy Award. In later years MacDonald wrote television scripts for "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" ("Malice Domestic", 1957) and "Perry Mason" ("The Case of the Terrified Typist", 1958). His novel "Patrol" was issued as one of the first twenty Penguin Books, and, as "W.J. Stuart", he wrote the novelisation of the 1956 science fiction film "Forbidden Planet". MacDonald also infrequently dabbled in science fiction under his own name,