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
Rebecca (novel) as "a sinister tale about a woman who marries a widower...Psychological and rather macabre." Some commentators have noted parallels with Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre". Another of du Maurier's works, "Jamaica Inn," is also linked to one of the Brontë sisters' works, Emily's "Wuthering Heights". Du Maurier commented publicly in her lifetime that the book was based on her own memories of Menabilly and Cornwall, as well as her relationship with her father. While du Maurier "categorised "Rebecca" as a study in jealousy... she admitted its origins in her own life to few." Her husband had been "engaged before – to