Laughter In The Rain

Musical telling the success story of musical legend Neil Sedaka. Growing up in a cheap tenement in New York where he lived with his parents, elder sister, and three aunts, Sedaka was a child prodigy on the piano and earned a scholarship to the prestigious Juliard school of music. Looking to be cut out for a career as a concert pianist, Sedaka turned to Rock and Roll seeking to gain approval from his peers. He formed a song writing partnership with Howard Greenfield who lived in the same apartment building. After being rejected by a series of publishers the pair succeeded in having a song accepted for Connie Francis who scored a major hit with "Stupid Cupid." After co-writing a number of songs for other performers, Sedaka finally acheived his ambition of recording his own material himself, scoring his first hit with "Oh Carol!", written for his then girlfriend, Carole King. For a time he became one of the top recording stars in America, but his recording career collapsed when the British invasion of the mid sixties changed American musical tastes and left established American artists like Sedaka out in the cold. Ten years in the wilderness followed before Sedaka resurrected his career in, of all places, London - becoming one of the first artists to be signed up to Elton John's new "Rocket" record label. Cheated by his agent (his mother's lover!) Sedaka survived bankruptcy to re-capture the hearts of the American public with the title song "Laughter in the Rain."

Impressions/Performances

Bio-Musical telling the up and down life story of pop icon "Neil Sedaka." In recent years, Neil Sedaka has come to be looked down upon in many quarters as a serious recording artist and it is certainly true to say that many of his songs are more than a little schmaltzy. If you are one of those who shares those opinions, however, this musical may just help to change your mind. Oh, the songs are still schmaltzy (but annoyingly catchy with it!) but there is much more to the man than you might have imagined.

Raised in a poor jewish family in Brooklyn, Sedaka, a child prodigy on the piano, could have broken the mould with a career as a concert pianist but chose instead a career in pop that eventually spanned six decades during which he would rise, fall and rise again. He formed a remarkably prolific songwriting partnership with his neighbour, Howard Greenfield, the pair studying the pop-charts scientifically to come up with a successful formula which they called "sandwich songs", the "tra-la-la" and "doo-be-do's" being the bread and Greenfield's poetic lyrics the meat in the middle (think of "Breaking up is hard to do!"). At his lowest ebb, Sedaka worked as a session musician and even as a receptionist at the hotel run by his wife's family. But Sedaka would not be subdued and became pop music's ultimate survivor - coping with rejection, financial ruin and his mother's attempted suicide to persist in a career that would bring dozens of hit singles and see him inducted into America's Songwriter's hall of Fame. It's a remarkable story of triumph over adversity which is not yet over, as Sedaka is still going strong today.

Like Sedaka's songs, the musical is more than a little formulaic, following in the wake of "Elvis the Musical" and "The Roy Orbison Story" in appealing to the nostalgia market. The book is not the strong point of the production, being pared to to a minimum to leave space to squeeze in the maximum number of songs - forty of them! And the songs themselves by and large do not progress the story but merely serve to highlight and illustrate it. In spite of that, the story is clear and compelling and covers all the major high, and low, points.

The lead role of Neil Sedaka was played by Wayne Smith who sings in most of the numbers and narrates his own story. Smith has a great voice and perfectly captures Sedaka's cheesy charm. Anna Clayton is excellent as Sedaka's wife, Leba and Edward Handoll does a good job as his taleneted but somewhat introverted partner, Greenfield. The rest of the cast all play multiple roles, including a brilliant Connie Francis from Carla Freeman.

The action takes place on a blank stage with a live six-piece on-stage band providing the music and is lively enough to keep the audience foot-tapping along from start to finish. "Amarillo" is perhaps Sedaka's most iconic song, although it was a hit for Tony Christie not himself, and received the warmest reception of the evening with almost everyone in the theatre clapping and singing along. All in all it's a fairly safe production which will probably appeal most to, and gain the best reception from, the older set who remember Sedaka's music when it was unashamedly de rigueur. But if you fancy a mindless evening with infectious tunes and plenty of opportunities to clap and sing along then you could do worse.

Verdict

Formulaic but lively musical with plenty of catchy tunes to keep you foot-tapping along.

Don Gillan - www.stagebeauty.net