Neil Sedaka: Second Stairway To Heaven

AWAY FROM the Vegas casino clatter, inside the Riviera Hotel's now empty Versailles Room, onstage, seated at a piano is a petite, energetic man who bounces to the beat as he leads the showroom's orchestra through their last rehearsal with him on the afternoon of his opening night. Two men in chef's hats stroll from the kitchen to watch, standing behind the last row of stacked dinner-show tables and peering through the dimness at the dapper little performer. "Who is that?" one asks, as if trying to conjure up a name from the past, and the other answers, "Neil Sedaka. You know: 'Breaking up – is hard – to do'."