Manderley has been torched.
“Rebecca,” the foundering $12 million Broadway musical slated to open next month has been canceled due to lack of financing, theater sources said yesterday.
The denouement caps a bizarre — and still unfolding — tale of a beleaguered Broadway producer, a mysterious investor whose existence has yet to be confirmed, and a collection of A-list Broadway talent, including Tony Award-winning director Michael Blakemore, whose lives and careers have been thrown into limbo.
Producer Ben Sprecher was forced last week to postpone the show after he claimed the investor, one Paul Abrams, died from malaria after a trip to Africa. But Abrams’ death — and existence — were never confirmed.
Sprecher said he had never met Abrams or spoken with him, even though he’d promised to put $4.5 million into the show.
Sprecher said Abrams was a prominent businessman in Johannesberg, South Africa — but theater people trying to confirm that came up with nothing.
Sprecher spent last week scrambling to raise money from other investors.
His lawyer, Ronald Russo, said yesterday a new investor had been waiting in the wings but withdrew after receiving “an extremely malicious e-mail, filled with lies and innuendo’’ from an anonymous sender.
Russo said the e-mail has been turned over to the “proper authorities,’’ who launched a “criminal investigation.’’
That could not be immediately confirmed yesterday.
Blakemore and composer Michael Koontz had flown in from Europe expecting to begin rehearsals on Monday. They’ve been working on the show, based on Daphne du Maurier’s classic gothic novel, for over a year.
Sprecher, who once owned off-Broadway theaters, has a reputation as a tough landlord. A number of producers who have done battle with him were chuckling over their lunches at Sardi’s.
One producer said: “I have never seen anything like this. And I don’t think its over. It’s the best show in town!”