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The imposing staircase erupts into real flames as a raging fire, this one virtual, engulfs the stunning 19th-century stage in a dramatic end to a new production of an old English classic, "Rebecca."
Cheers and applause erupt as the curtain comes down on the world's first musical version of Daphne du Maurier's famous 1938 novel of love, secrets and jealousy.
Sets hardly make a musical but they just might be the highlight of this production by Vienna's Vereinigte Buehnen company.
The company bills itself on its website as "the only major presenter of musicals on the continent" and the sleek and polished "Rebecca," which premiered in Vienna's Raimund Theater on September 28, would not be out of place in London's West End or on Broadway, except for its German language.
Not an easy feat in a city better known for -- and more interested in -- a Mozart opera or a Strauss waltz.
But while its visual aesthetics are flawless, the production by the hit team of Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay, whose adaptations have unlocked the mainly English-language world of musicals for German-speaking audiences, has drawn some of its own fire.
Already adapted to film and television, notably in Alfred Hitchcock's Oscar-winning 1940 movie starring Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier, the story is well-suited to the stage.
The Kunze-Levay version remains faithful to du Maurier's dark tale, set along Cornwall's rugged coast, of an innocent young woman who marries the elegant Maxim de Winter only to battle with the memory of his dead wife, the beautiful and admired Rebecca.
But Kunze and Levay took liberty with the darkness, adding comic interludes -- with garishly outfitted golfers gossiping about the new Mrs de Winter and an exaggeratedly brash American Mrs van Hopper arriving at a masked ball -- that bring laughs but were panned by some critics who said they ruin the mood and do nothing to advance the story.
Some suggested Kunze and Levay, who created the widely successful Viennese musical "Elisabeth" about Austria's tragic 19th-century empress, could not decide between drama or comedy and feared a sombre mood throughout would alienate the audience.
This fear was unfounded: the show's dark atmosphere is seen as a selling point. Black waves crashing onto rocks and projected onto a stage curtain at the start of each act set the tone, recalling Rebecca's violent death by drowning.
These waves and the final flames are the creation of the German Sven Ortel, who designed the video concept for Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical "The Woman in White," which premiered in London in 2004.
British designer Peter J. Davison's imposing sets, towering above the actors, also live up to his reputation for unexpected twists that set the mood, in this case oppression, and have earned acclaim from near and far.
Critics have also showered Dutch actress Susan Rigvava-Dumas with praise for cutting a menacing figure as the caretaker Mrs Danvers who manages to keep the spirit of her dead mistress alive on the Vienna stage.
Her powerful voice counterpoints perfectly with the innocence of fellow Dutch actress Wietske van Tongeren as the new Mrs de Winter, known in the musical only as "Ich", or "I".
Their duet on the haunting title song "Rebecca" and other tunes like "Ich hab getraeumt von Manderley" (I dreamt of Manderley) and the hopeful ballad "Jenseits der Nacht" (Beyond the night) are already catching on like any good Broadway melody.
But some critics say Kunze's lyrics are too simple and predictable, while Benedict Nightingale of The Times commented that "Levays music (is) seldom harsh or imaginative enough."
The German Uwe Kroeger, wildly popular in these parts for his roles in the Vereinigte Buehnen hit productions "Elisabeth" and "Mozart!", has also been blasted for "over-acting" as the enigmatic Maxim de Winter.
But a month after opening and following rave reviews in Austria and elsewhere, "Rebecca" has some trumpeting it as the next great musical -- one that might even travel across the Channel to the home of its author.
"(Rebecca) is up to the most lavish West End visual standards. Dont be surprised if some impresario gets it translated from the German and brings it to its obvious home, meaning Britain," Nightingale wrote.
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AFPEntertainment-theatre-Austria-duMaurier-sched-FEATURE
AFP 011145 GMT 11 06
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