So much stands out about new musical ‘Your Lie in April’, which is making its full-blown UK premiere at the Harold Pinter Theatre following a concert version earlier this year. In a production directed and choreographed by Nick Winston, its source material is an award-winning, serialised story by Japanese manga artist Naoshi Arakawa and it’s the first fully East Asian cast in a West End musical. So, it’s a genuine shame that it’s not really very good.
After the death of his controlling mother – for which he blames himself – teenage piano prodigy Kōsei Arima (Zheng Xi Yong) gradually rediscovers the beauty of music with the help of his friends and as he falls in love with the free-spirited violinist Kaori Miyazono (Mia Kobayashi), who is concealing a secret with tragic consequences. Don’t worry, they’ll sing about it.
Zheng Xi and Kobayashi manage to conjure a sweet tenderness between their characters and the ensemble give it their all. But the show is overpowered by the crashing clichés of its story and the clunky Americanisms of Rinne B Groff’s English version of Riko Sakaguchi’s book. While ostensibly set in Japan, the characters feel imprisoned by the stereotypes of any one the 300 films starring Freddie Prinze Jr pretending to be high-school age – from the manic pixie girl who exists to teach the boy about life, to the comedy-relief jock, to the overlooked best friend.
You also know you’re in trouble with a musical when the songs are straining so hard to be inspirational that a plot-device bike ride gets as rousing an anthem as a character’s death. The second half is better because it creates space for Zheng Xi’s gorgeous piano playing. There’s an emotion, nuance and depth, sorely lacking elsewhere, before we’re thrust into another pastel-coloured, frenetically choreographed power ballad.