Get a first listen to a song from the English-language premiere of Rebecca as Lauren Jones and Kara Lane perform "Mrs. De Winter Is Here" in the video above.
Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay's German musical, based on the Daphne Du Maurier novel, is set to play the U.K.'s Charing Cross Theatre September 4–November 18 with opening night planned for September 18.
Richard Carson will star as Maxim de Winter with Jones as Second Mrs. de Winter and Lane as Mrs. Danvers. The cast will also include Alex James-Ward, Piers Bate, Sarah Harlington, David Breeds, Amanda Minihan, Neil Moors, Nicholas Lumley, Nigel-Joseph Francis, Elliot Swann, Scott McClure, Emily Apps, Melanie Bright, Gail MacKinnon, Tarisha Rommick, James Mateo-Salt, and Rosie Glossop. Casting is by Stephen Crockett of Grindrod Burton Casting.
Director Alejandro Bonatto will lead a new creative team that also includes choreographer Ron Howell, musical supervisor Robert Scott, production designer Nicky Shaw, lighting designer David Seldes, projection designer Matt Powell, and sound designer Andy Johnson.
Rebecca follows the wealthy Maxim De Winter as he brings his naïve new wife home, to the dismay of housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, who is loyal to Maxim's first wife Rebecca. The musical features a book and lyrics by Kunze and music and orchestrations by Levay. The upcoming production will use the English book adaptation by Christopher Hampton (Sunset Boulevard), with English lyrics co-written by Hampton and Kunze.
Producer Ben Sprecher had been planning English-language productions of the musical as early as 2009, with Broadway favorite Sierra Boggess attached to star. Main Stem bows were announced and later canceled twice in 2012, the latter instance following the "sudden death" of a major investor. As it turned out, that investor never actually existed, the creation of now-convicted fraudster Mark Hotton. Sprecher, who in unrelated charges was arrested in 2019 for downloading and sharing child pornography, is not involved with the forthcoming London premiere.
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Charing Cross Managing Director Steven M. Levy is producing for Charing Cross Theatre Productions Limited.
Visit CharingCrossTheatre.co.uk.
