Musicals based on Japanese manga are all the rage, it seems. Following closely on the heels of Death Note comes this musical adaptation of Naoshi Arakawa’s celebrated manga-turned-anime about teenage romance and the healing power of music.
The English version with music by Frank Wildhorn and lyrics from Carly Robyn Green & Tracy Miller is an endearingly odd encounter between East and West. With one or two exceptions the songs are generic compositions-by-numbers and the story is almost operatically absurd.
Teenage piano prodigy Kosei (Zheng Xi Yong) cannot hear his playing after his Tiger Mom (Lucy Park) dies. Two girls – his best friend, tomboyish Tsubaki (Rachel Clare Chan) and maverick violinist Kaori (Mia Kobayashi) – compete for his attention while attempting to persuade him back to the keyboard.
As the story enters the second stage, however, it becomes clear that there are greater depths to the incipient teenage tragedy.
Most notable of all is the fact that Zheng Xi Yong not only sings and acts well but also plays the piano throughout, including an immaculate rendition of a Rachmaninoff Prelude in the scholarship competition.
Some of the voices become strident in the upper registers but generally speaking this is the kind of fervent, heartfelt and shamelessly sincere piece of musical theatre that we rarely see any more. Anyone seeking lip-curling irony would be advised to look elsewhere.
Your Lie in April is at the Harold Pinter Theatre until September 21