Rebecca Das Musical - Blog Posts
Manderlay in Flammen Rebecca (Vienna 2022)
Feuer! Feuer! Manderley in Flammen! Rettet, was ihr tragen könnt, schneller, schneller, schneller!
Rebecca | Mrs Danvers through the years
this exists?????
helpppp I’m actually scaredddd😭😭😭
As a person who speaks English as a native language, I'm sorry but we do ruin European musicals, and we are all traumatized from Rebecca
The cast list for the new Vienna 2022/23 revival of Rebecca das Musical has been announced! The cast is: Neinke Latten (Ich), Mark Seibert (Maxim de Winter), Willemijn Verkaik (Mrs Danvers), Annemieke Van Dam (Beatrice/Alt Mrs Danvers), Ana Milva Gomes (Mrs Van Hopper), Boris Preifer (Jack Favell), Aris Sas (Ben)
Saturday Stream: Rebecca das Musical
Hello lads, it's been a while so I thought I'd stream another musical! No English subs for this version of the show unfortunately (didn't have time to finish making them though I'm still trying!) but if anyone has questions/needs a translation during the show I'm happy to help! Arvid is an interesting Maxim and Christina is SUCH a good Ich. Pia is fantastic as always and does some interesting vocal things this show.
Rebecca das Musical - Stuttgart - 16 June 2012
Christina Patten (u/s "Ich"), Arvid Larsen (u/s Maxim de Winter), Pia Douwes (Mrs. Danvers), Hannes Staffler (Jack Favell), Mona Graw (u/s Mrs. Van Hopper), Kerstin Ibald (Beatrice), Jörg Neubauer (Frank Crawley), Daniele Nonnis (Ben), Udo Eickelmann (Giles/Horridge), Alexander Bellinkx (Oberst Julian), Matthias Graf (Frith)
When: Saturday 8 May 2021, 2pm EST / 8pm CET
The link to the stream on kosmi will be reblogged on this post 15 minutes before the stream begins. Hope to see y'all there! Shy anons welcome.
I wrote a lil something :)
Hope you enjoy!
Pretty Ladies!
emotional support Beavers
AAAAAAA I LOVE THEM SO MUCH
/blasting Sie war gewohnt, geliebt zu werden/ heyyyy it's Becky in Vivienne Westwood
YOOOOOOOOO
/blasting Sie war gewohnt, geliebt zu werden/ heyyyy it's Becky in Vivienne Westwood
You can just tell she owns every room she walks into
I have always wanted to see Bea in vintage Galliano
what made me able to forgive maxim by the end of the book is the fact that rebecca was doomed anyway. i know this sounds bad, but it's the truth. she wanted to die -> she did everything in her power to die quickly in a manner of her own choosing. maxim became an unwilling and unknowing participant in her assisted suicide. she 100% intended it that way, whether or not it was meant to completely ruin him as well we don't know for sure but come on. the lady had one last ace in her sleeve, of course she would use it to drag him down with her. it didn't even have to be personal, just what he stands for is enough. with all of this i'm not saying that he's justified or that there weren't better courses of action he should've taken. but the stakes were stacked heavily against him. i mean Rebecca lived with him for 20 years, in which time she notably didn't die and we get no mention or even a hint of potential domestic violence either. if nothing else, that man had self control, and his wife of several decades was the best suited person to set him off. a dog you condition to bite will lash out. the first decision he makes completely on his own was to hide her body. he scrubbed her blood off the floor for what must've been hours he definitely had time to think about it and then he decided to not die. it almost destroys him anyway, by the time the narrator meets him he's borderline suicidal. his head had to be pulled above the water by other people because he was more than ready to be hang for his crime, which he recognizes as horrific. but he also admits that he would've shot rebecca again even if he knew what would happen, and he says this while he still thinks he killed a pregnant woman. he felt that much trapped.
Rebecca Dream Cast
As "Rebecca das Musical" connoisseurs™, @edgyparrot and I cooked something up.
We've seen a lot of different versions (never enough) and now we're basically deciding who's best at the characters and putting them in one dream cast.
Ich: Nienke Latten (only from the Wilemijn cast, not with Mark)
Maxim de Winter: Jan Ammann
Mrs Danvers: Pia Douwes (@edgyparrot's love)
Beatrice Lacy: Kerstin Ibald (my love)
Giles Lacy: Raphael Dörr
Frank Crawley: Jörg Neubauer (the chemistry with Jan, omg)
Jack Favell: Hannes Staffler/ Mark Seibert (I know he's theoretically never played Jack, but he basically plays Maxim how I imagine Jack to be, and let's be honest, he would slay)
Ben: Daniele Nonnis
Mrs van Hopper: Isabel Dörfler (our queen <3)
Frith: Matthias Graf
Robert: (forgot his name, will look it up later)
Clarice: Christina Patten
We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments (but accept no criticism :))
@maliania and I fallen into the pit again and that means more Rexim for our cult.
Today we have something special on the menu:
Rebecca and Bea have a fight, that can only be settled with a car race. And because he doesn't have another ride, Maxim needs to tag along.
one of us one of us one oF US ONE OF US
finally watched rebecca das musical after loving the film for so long. i am a changed woman.
I love her so much
(EXCLUDING Les Miserables because I know dang well a lot of people would have picked it. It’s in between WSS and Sunday in my ranking, though)
- The poll is just for fun lol. No purpose <3
- Mostly in order
Day 16 of @gelphiefemslashfeb: Crossover
in which Elphaba isn't the only one who gets a makeover
good dynamic: character who’s too deeply rooted to a fault + character who’s never been able to form roots anywhere before
Stumbled upon this video essay on Musical Rebecca and how Kunze/Lévay supposedly departed drastically from the book’s themes by romanticizing Ich and Maxim’s relationship, and I have Des Notes(tm):
The claim that the novel is not a love story but a study of jealousy. Obviously…romantic jealousy. 🤣 Granted, the narrator also has self-esteem issues, but the moment Maxim says he never loved Rebecca, the narrator’s seething jealousy of her literally vanished. It is very much dependent on her love for Maxim and her belief that he did love Rebecca.
While Maxim did murder Rebecca in the book, it should be noted that little to nothing contradicts his claim that Rebecca was a bad person. Outside of Maxim’s POV, Du Maurier wrote numerous red flags. To whit:
Ben is afraid of Rebecca (she threatened to send him to the asylum, per him). Frank, who had a wholeass affair with Rebecca, tells the narrator directly that goodness is more important to a man than beauty. Beatrice, who is depicted as straightforward and honest, doesn’t praise Rebecca outside of her beauty and charm, forgot Gran loved Rebecca, and deals with the narrator with uncharacteristic patience. Even Mrs. Danvers proudly boasted that Rebecca once flogged a horse. And then there is the fact that all of Rebecca’s closest intimates are creeps and sleazeballs. Mrs. Danvers and Favell may have their sympathetic moments (as in, they did care about Rebecca), but that doesn’t mean they are depicted as good people.
And then there is the fact that Rebecca deliberately manipulated Maxim into killing her, lol. The final twist is that she had cancer and was looking for a quick end. Mrs. Danvers confirms, even before she knew of this diagnosis, that Rebecca feared getting sick and would have wanted a quick end. Her pregnancy was a lie meant to push Maxim to his limits, and it worked.
If Du Maurier wanted to make Maxim shady and unreliable, she wouldn’t have done any of this. Instead, she did everything possible to justify Maxim and buttress his claim that Rebecca was bad, which is no doubt part of why the narrator forgives Maxim so easily.
So on that count, what the novel ends up saying in terms of theme is less “traditionalist chauvinist husband murders his flawed but morally clean modern ex-wife” and more “abuse victim finally retaliates against his abuser and struggles to recover from his trauma with the help of another abuse victim.” Problematic? Yeah, highly so (except for the abuse victim overcoming trauma part). But that’s the way Du Maurier wrote it. She absolutely gave Maxim (almost) every reason.
So in adapting the book to a musical, Kunze decided to opt to emphasize out this romantic strain of the novel. Understandable, given that musicals are very romance-friendly and don’t do thrillers easily. But it’s still not a radical interpretation from Du Maurier’s work. You do get Rebecca fans and defenders, but given that a pro-Rebecca fanfic sequel irked most fans, it’s safe to say most fans agree that Rebecca was bad and Maxim was a victim.
Bonus: As for the novel’s queer coding, it should be noted that in the novel, Mrs. Danvers explicitly says Rebecca never loved anyone. Not just men. This supports the whole Rebecca-as-sociopath canonical strain (although ace headcanons are a possibility) and less the interpretation of Rebecca being a possibly queer woman silenced forever by her murderous macho husband. Also, Beatrice is perhaps just as queer coded than Rebecca herself, and it is heavily implied (and Maxim confirms it) that she didn’t like her, found her fishy.
So in sum: This is less Book-to-Musical Wicked and more Book-to-Musical Notre Dame de Paris. Subtle thematic shifts, same plot, some changes to make it more musical-friendly. Sounds like your everyday book-to-musical adaptation to me.
That’s not even a headcanon lol
@littlelattewanders @derschleierfallt
Tag game time baby
Ok here are the rules:
1: Go to Character Headcanon Generator
2: Type the name of your current #1 kin character/comfort character
3: Press the "Create Headcanon" button
4: Take a screenshot of the headcanon that it generated and post it in your reblog
5: Tag some moots
Here I'll go first :3
-
Tags:
@drizzlemoth @lunozapp @hey-imma-fangirl @awakentrashpanda @aintan0driscollnomore @mylivingend @orangeleftyart @flower--ghoul @selora-florients @n-atsu @ol1verdrawsyt @skullgirlrawr @stitcheds-sewing-box @carnationstars @dat1jamesandthegiantpeach @worldsbiggestnerd101 @fanoffandoms23 @foulfictkin @chaosbug-png @sillyjesters @datotota @catinabeartrap
*Edit: Ok so since a bunch of people keep asking this, yes you can join in even if you weren't tagged by anyone.
Oh and also holy shit that's a lot of notes
he’s an unreliable narrator TO YOU. i believe him
I’ve been thinking nonstop about the time someone on ao3 mentioned that Maxim took on some of Rebecca’s worst traits as a way to cope with (or that some of his own worst traits were exacerbated by) the abuse he endured by Rebecca’s hand. And that honestly makes so much sense.
None of this an excuse for how he behaves, but I think it could be an explanation.
I mean, think about it. We know he has quite the horrible temper. In the musical Beatrice states that he was “the same way as a child” meaning that his anger issues have always existed in some way. Of course that is most likely true, but take that and add in years of emotional abuse and it’s certainly a recipe for disaster. What used to be an ordinary bad temper became something border lining on volatile over the years. We see that in those moments Maxim snaps at his second wife. In the musical, during the first boathouse scene, Maxim rushes after his wife who had run offstage in terror, as if he was about to hit her before ultimately realizing what he was about to do and stopping himself in his tracks.
We know that Maxim can be quite cold and distant when he wants to be. At times he is also super patronizing and mocking. In the musical it’s a bit less so (but even that has the “you react like a child” line) but in the book he’s constantly talking down to his wife. Perhaps he does so because Rebecca did the same to him? Of course, Rebecca definitely didn’t compare him to a child as Maxim did to his second wife, but she could have mocked him with his insecurities (his obsession with holding up his family’s reputation, his intense desire to be seen as a strong figure and the toxic level of pressure he puts on himself as a result).
And of course, we can’t talk about Maxim or Rebecca’s worst traits without mentioning manipulation and the abuse of power dynamics. And what’s more is that both of them are fully aware that they are manipulating the situation. Rebecca sought to control Maxim by holding her affairs, Manderley’s standing, etc. over his head knowing full well he either wouldn’t or couldn’t (or a combination of the two) divorce her. See the lyric in “Kein Lächeln war je so Kalt”: “Divorce was taboo for the de Winter family. The family honor was worth more to me than my pride, and she relished in her triumph”.
Likewise, Maxim knows full well that his second wife came from basically nothing. He knows she’s financially dependent on him and that should their marriage fail in some way, she would have nowhere to go and no one to turn to. He even outright admits to her that he “did a selfish thing” marrying his second wife and that he “should have waited and let [his wife] marry a boy of [her] own age”. He knows that he has (and arguably still is) manipulating the dynamics in his own favor until the very moment he confesses to Rebecca’s murder and the power shifts from Maxim to his young wife.
Both Maxim and Rebecca know that they are absolute monsters. But it’s important to also note where they differ. While Rebecca revels in her absolute assholery and abusiveness, Maxim’s situation is the opposite. He hates himself for his own assholery and has basically condemned himself to a suffering of his own making.
Ironically, Mrs. Danvers said it best: “He’s made his own hell, and he has no one but himself to thank for it”. Was Mrs. Danvers just trying to get under the new Mrs. de Winter’s skin and hit her where it would hurt most? Yes. Was it said out of bitterness over Rebecca being replaced? Yes. But was she correct in her assumption? Also yes.
And of course, the key difference between Rebecca and Maxim is that all important shift in power. Rebecca held the power for almost the entirety of their relationship, and Maxim sought to take that power back through any means necessary resulting in Rebecca’s murder. When Maxim eventually confesses to said murder, it serves as an act of giving up that power he had claimed by killing Rebecca. He can no longer hold the weight of it because he knows he is damned and thus power transferred itself to his second wife. Where he was previously codependent on Rebecca, his second wife became codependent on him upon their marriage, and ultimately he became codependent on his wife upon his confession.
This is where the adaptation of Rebecca’s traits begins to fade. Maxim becomes basically a shell of himself, barely keeping it together through the rest of the story if not for the influence of his wife. He becomes as reliant on her as she had previously been reliant on him. This toxic cycle is only truly broken with the burning of Manderley. Only then are they equals. Only then do they begin to truly grow.
Rebecca, on the other hand, never got that chance. It was taken from her by the very man she had ill used. She knew that her “pregnancy” was a lie. She knew that her cancer diagnoses would damn her to a slow and painful death. Did that stop her from perpetuating the cycle of abuse? No. Instead she continued with it until her last breath, passing the torch to Maxim in the process.
Maxim certainly was no innocent. He perpetuated this toxic cycle as well. The only difference was that the person he passed it onto ended up not only breaking the cycle, but also gave him the opportunity to heal from it. He knows he isn’t worthy of it. We as the reader/viewer somewhat know that too. And yet the second Mrs. de Winter unknowingly grants him this post Manderley fire. Maxim has the opportunity to redeem himself where Rebecca did not.
Whether he takes the opportunity or ultimately succumbs to his inner demons (figuratively or literally) is completely up to the one consuming the story.
Personally my opinion is ever changing. While the optimistic part of me believes that he does work to better himself and ultimately succeeds in doing so, the realistic part of me wonders whether that’s the case. Of course, when I am of the realistic opinion I don’t think he reverts back to the traits he took on from Rebecca and those that were made worse during his relationship with Rebecca, but rather he wallows in a state of being that is just numb to it all. He is stagnant in his recovery because he believes, he knows, that he is beyond help. Things don’t get worse, but they certainly don’t get better either.
Ultimately Maxim de Winter is a character that foretells the tragedy of abuse and how the cycle of abuse can continue in ways that those trapped within it don’t comprehend until it’s too late. He is and isn’t a victim. He is and isn’t a perpetrator. We root for his relationship with his second wife on our most hopeful days and yet we don’t on our most cynical. He is an asshole. He is a dick. He isn’t exactly the best of men. And yet he is also broken. He is lonely. He is lost.
He finds what he is looking for in the end to an extent. A love that, while not exactly the healthiest, sets him on a path to becoming a better person. The relationship between Maxim and his second wife is in a way just like the drive leading to Manderley itself. Constant twisting and turning, plenty of bumps in the road, obstacles that temporarily prevent them from moving forward. And the beauty of it is that they do, in their own twisted way. They move on from the cycle of abuse they started in, however irreparably damaged and emotionally numb Maxim may be by the end.
“Love that liberates”. I’ve seen plenty of debate over whether that signature line from the musical is applicable to the story of Rebecca and the journey the de Winters take. My two cents is that it is, although the love itself isn’t what liberates the de Winters, Maxim in particular. Maxim may delude himself into believe that the love his second wife shows him despite his crimes is what liberates him, but while it certainly sets the foundation for their liberation from the cycle, in the end it is he who must crawl out of the hell he created for himself. No one can pull him out of it but himself.
Every time people try to girlboss-ify Rebecca de Winter it takes 3 years off my life.
A Chicago-inspired "Rebecca Alternate Ending" video by Kara Lane and Lauren Jones!
"We've been sent so much fanfic from all over the world, and we've loved every single alternate ending! We thought we'd create our own. Chicago the play was first performed on Broadway in 1926, the same year Rebecca is set... Maybe that's where the similarities end... or maybe not!"
— Rebecca (1940) vs Rebecca das Musical —
Left: Rebecca (1940 movie)
Right: Rebecca das Musical (Vienna 2022, Stuttgart 2011)