The business of Broadway has always been cloaked in mystery. Most of its 40 theaters are run by three private organizations that operate out of public view. Producers keep deal-making under wraps. The biggest mystery of all is why so many sophisticated investors go along with business-as-usual on Broadway when few shows turn a profit.

But nothing about Broadway has been quite as bewildering lately as the $12 million musical “Rebecca.”

Start with a rich investor unknown to clubby Broadway insiders — a mystery man named Paul Abrams. Go on to the astounding sum he is said to have promised to raise for “Rebecca”: $4.5 million, easily 10 times more than the wealthiest regulars normally put down for a show. Then: Reports in August of his sudden death in Britain of malaria — yet no obituaries, no death notices. A representative for the Abrams estate surfaces, a person identifying himself only as “Wexler” who refuses to speak by phone and uses an e-mail address created just last month.

Finally, late last week, came the revelation that the lead producer of “Rebecca,” Ben Sprecher, a man trying to make the leap from Off Broadway to the Broadway big leagues, had never met Mr. Abrams or spoken to him by phone. That disclosure, confirmed by Mr. Sprecher, sent some of his other investors reeling.