Sedaka musical rains on Opera House, 17 May

Following in the footsteps of Bill Kenwright‘s Could It Be Magic which
featured the songs of Barry Manilow, Neil Sedaka is the latest singer
whose back catalogue will receive the compilation musical treatment. Laughter in the Rain,
which takes its title from Sedaka’s 1975 chart-topper, charts the highs
and lows of the career of “pop music’s ultimate survivor”.

The
new show, which has a book by Philip Norman, premiered on 4 March
2010 at Bromley’s Churchill Theatre, and arrives in Manchester next month.

With a career spanning six decades
and including nine hit singles, Neil Sedaka has been inducted into the
Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, had a street named after him in his hometown
of Brooklyn, and was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He has
written and performed pop songs including “Oh, Carol”, “Breaking up Is
Hard to Do”, “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen”, “Hey Little Devil”,
“Laughter in the Rain” and “Amarillo”, which gained new popularity when
it was re-released by in a version by British comedian Peter Kay for
Comic Relief in 2005.

Born in 1936 in Brooklyn, the son of a
taxi-driver, Neil Sedaka started songwriting at Broadway’s Brill
Building, penning his first hit, “Oh Carol”, for his then girlfriend,
Carole King. He went on to become a teenage idol to rival Elvis, but in
1964 his career collapsed as America embraced the Beatles and other
bands of the ‘British Invasion’. For almost a decade, he struggled to
support his wife Leba and their two children but found salvation in
moving to Britain, where he signed to Elton John’s Rocket Records
label, and returned to the top of the US charts in 1974 with “Laughter
in the Rain”.

Laughter in the Rain is produced by Bill Kenwright and Laurie Mansfield, who are also behind the compilation hit Dreamboats and Petticoats,
which is currently at the West End’s Playhouse Theatre and on a UK tour
and which features hit-makers from the 1950s and 1960s, including
Sedaka. Kenwright and Mansfield have also had touring successes with
bio-musicals about Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley.

Laughter In The Rain is at the Manchester Opera House from  17 – 22 May.