Magic Moments with Laughter In The Rain
Singer's life story hits a high note.
NEIL Sedaka will always be considered the smiley man of pop. He never got the reputation for throwing TVs out of a window, groupies, drink and drugs or, like Jerry Lee Lewis, marrying related under-age girls.
So who on earth thought his life story would be interesting enough to turn into a stage musical?
Well, whoever it was deserves a huge pat on the back because Laughter In The Rain, which is running at Milton Keynes Theatre this week, is one of the most enjoyable jukebox musicals I've watched in a long time.
Far from being Mr Boring, the nice guy of rock and roll has had a roller coaster career which has seen him lurch from being one of the most influential songwriters in 1950s America to a penniless telephone operator in a hotel and back to a number one recording artist on both sides of the pond.
In-between his mother had a very open affair during which she and her boyfriend fleeced her innocent, trusting son out of his entire fortune and he was alternatively loved and shunned by the public.
Laughter In The Rain stars Wayne Smith as Sedaka. He neither looks or sounds anything like the singer but he does possess oodles of charisma, a fabulous singing voice and a remarkable haircut that doesn't budge no matter matter how energetic the song.
According to the story Sedaka was always missing the boat. He first found fame in the late 1950s when, together with a timid young poet called Howie Greenfield, the pair wrote hits like Stupid Cupid, Calendar Girl and Oh Carol, for others.
But no sooner had he become a recording artist than the whole rock and roll genre bit the dust with the advent of The Beatles and the Swinging Sixties.
For a decade the was snubbed and the family, he had married his childhood sweetheart Leba Strasberg, were left virtually destitute.
Throwing caution to the wind the couple and their two children crossed the Atlantic and tried to resurrect his career in the UK. Just when it looked as though things were going well came the news that his mother and her boyfriend, who acted as the singer's managers, had spent every penny Sedaka had earned on the high life.
Elton John came to the rescue and, with the backing of the superstar's new record label, and the sudden rise of the singer-songwriter, Sedaka's career was reborn.
It's a lovely feelgood musical jam packed with more than 40 Sedaka songs including Amarillo (a huge hit for Tony Christie), Breaking Up Is Hard To do, the title song, Love Will Kep Us Together and That's Where The Music Takes Me.
The only fault I found with the story was its saccharine finish. The truth is that it wasn't all sweetness and light when Sedaka attempted a UK comeback, it was dj vu.
I met the singer at The Top of the Pops studio in the mid 1970s when and he looked and sounded as much out of place among the glam rockers Gary Glitter, Sweet and Marc Bolan as he had when The Beatles first destroyed his career.
But it's a minor niggle along with the, at times, generic, slightly over the top Noo York Jewishness of most of the cast. So he was a nice boy from Brooklyn? Did it have to be so laboured?
The singing is wonderful, the costumes evocative of bobby socks and sharp suits, and the story, written along the same lines as The Buddy Holly Story, zips along between songs at a pace that makes your head spin.
There's the inevitable standing encore with everyone joining in a greatest hits medley and we all go home shu-b-doing and be-bopping to Breaking Up Is Hard To Do.
It was a thoroughly entertaining night out from a sleeper that I had initially been reluctant to see. Boring? No, it was busting full of Magic Moments.
Laughter In The Rain runs until Saturday.
For tickets call the box office 0844 871 7652 or go online www.ambassadortickets.com/miltonkeynes
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Friday 25 May 2012
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