Neil Sedaka talks to Viv Hardwick about surviving the dark days of his career. It inspired the new musical Laughter In The Rain, which tours to Sunderland later this month.

THE US star who was almost put out of business by The Beatles sees nothing strange about a musical tribute to his life being created in this country… it was, after all, Elton John and the UK which saved Neil Sedaka’s career in the Seventies.

Sedaka, a sprightly 71, says he’s determined to catch the show, Laughter In The Rain, once more on a UK tour which heads for Sunderland Empire Theatre, April 19-24, and has his heart set on a Broadway run.

“I lived in the UK between 1971 and 1974, and it was my salvation in terms of making enough money to support my wife, Leba, and my two children. We lived in Mayfair and my children attended the American school in London.

“Elton John had just started the Rocket Records label and he showed a lot of faith in me by signing me,” says Sedaka who admits his records had been completely overwhelmed by the British invasion of the charts in the mid-Sixties. Until then the teen idol from Brooklyn had dominated the singles charts with The Diary, Oh! Carol, Calendar Girl, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen and Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, among a prestigious songwriting output, mostly alongside lyricist Howard Greenfield. It took until 1975 and the single Laughter In The Rain, also the name of Sedaka’s autobiography, for the man who dubs himself “singer, songwriter, survivor” to enjoy more decades of chart success.

“I toured wherever they would have me in the UK, I went all over the place, and the turning point was my recording sessions with 10cc in Stockport,” says the king of the doobie-dos, who earned sell-out audiences for a string of concerts last year.

“There was talk of the musical being called Solitare (his song recorded by Elvis and The Carpenters in the Seventies) but I thought that would make me sound too lonely, so it had to be Laugher In The Rain because everyone knows I’ve had hard times in my life and I think that’s why this song is one of my biggest achievements… and I like laughing in the rain even now,” he jokes.

Asked about the authenticity of the show, which some critics feel underplays his life story, Sedaka is adamant that he didn’t veto any of his background being introduced into Laughter In The Rain.

“When I was approached in the US about the musical, I sat down with Philip Norman (who wrote the book) for many months and talked him through the 51 years I’d had and this is the real story of my ups and downs in this very strange and fickle business.

"My wife is in there, although I have to say she wouldn’t have been so supportive if Anna Clayton who plays her hadn’t have been so attractive. She’s really happy about that. My father and mother and mother-in-law are all in there, although, sadly they are no longer with us.

“I have to say I already knew about hard times, my dad was a cab driver and 11 of us shared a two-bed apartment. Although I have to say that my mother was before her time. She had a lover for 30 years and my father knew about it and accepted it. My father was what you’d call ‘very cheap’ and it was the lover who bought her jewels and furs,” says Sedaka who saw off the suitor in later life by firing him as his manager and financing these gifts himself.

“Sadly, it led to my mother taking an overdose of pills,” he says.

In the past, the subjects of tribute musicals were normally part of the star line-up in musical heaven, but Sedaka is very much still alive and still manages to appear in around 40 concerts a year.

“It’s a very surreal experience watching other people play my life on stage and those appearing as other members of my family. My one fear was the boy who’s playing me but he’s absolutely terrific. But Wayne Smith looks a bit like me and sings the way I did at that time. I think it also shows that if you’re a creative person there are times you have to reinvent yourself to survive in the entertainment business,” he says.

And for those who think Sedaka has faded since 2000, in 2006 he received an award for his song Amarillo becoming the best-selling single of the 21st Century so far.

He’d composed it originally for UK singer Tony Christie in 1971 but Peter Kay’s 2005 charity video version made the song a charttopper.

Sedaka has been inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame, had a street named after him in Brooklyn and gained a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

“It didn’t surprise me when the idea of Laughter In The Rain was suggested as a British musical. I think I still have very fond memories of my time there, but I’m very much hoping that after the West End that the show can come across the pond to Broadway next year,” he says about a show which saw him join the cast on stage at the Bromley opening night for an impromptu version of the title track Meanwhile, Sedaka is busying himself preparing to cut his next album this summer.

“The working title is Sedaka Sings Doo-op (Forties vocal-based rhythm and blues) which will be a new-old style of songs and, like all the songs I’ve done in later years, the lyrics will come from me because I like to put my own words to projects,” he says.

And he sums up his attitude towards another musical milestone with Laughter In The Rain by adding: “This really is my story and I am very proud of it and very proud of my part in the history of rock and roll.”

■ Laughter In the Rain, Sunderland Empire, April 19-24.

Tickets: £11.50-£31. Box Office: 0844-847-2499 SunderlandEmpire.org.uk