Fan report by Mark Giles.

Last week I was lucky to attend the "premiere" of the new musical "Laughter In The Rain " ... The Neil Sedaka Story, which opened in Bromley, Kent in the United Kingdom.

Written by Philip Norman (who wrote the "Elton" biography) and directed by successful theatre producer Bill Kenwright, the musical traces the ups and downs of his life and career of Sedaka and how he started out as a classical pianist at the Julliard School of music, before teaming up with lyricist Howard Greenfield and persuing a successful rock'n'roll career.

The first half concertrates on these early years, and how The Beatles in 1964 "took over" the music scene in the USA and the singer/songwriter style lost favour with the public. The second half concentrates on his decision to move to the UK and re-emerge as a singer-songwriter, but with a different style. The musical is full of the Sedaka hits in order including "Oh Carol," "Breaking Up is Hard to do," "Amarillo" and 1970's classics "Standing on the Inside," "Solitaire."

In the early Seventies, when forming Rocket Records, Elton went to see Sedaka, and asked him if he'd join the label. This resulted in two albums "Sedaka's Back " & "The Hungry Years" (named "Overnight Success" in the UK), and Sedaka had two US number ones with "Laughter in the Rain" & "Bad Blood" (Elton contributed backing vocals).

During the musical a rather nervous "Elton" dressed in a light grey suit, a large grey flat hat, Watford tie and big glasses, is seen nervously asking Sedaka if he'd join Rocket "as he was such a big fan of his". Elton then plays piano whilst they sing "Bad Blood." The musical ends around this time with a medley of rousing hits.

Although not mentioned in the musical the link with Elton continued with Elton's band (Davey, Dee & Nigel) performing on some of Sedaka's albums in the mid 1970's, and in 2007 Sedaka was honoured with a tribute in New York's Lincoln Center ... Neil Sedaka 50 years of hits which was a benefit for the Elton John Aids Foundation.

Sedaka was present at the "premiere" of the musical , and at the end of the show came on stage and performed that first Rocket Records number one "Laughter In the Rain.

Back to Headlines