Your Lie in April is a Japanese high school romantic drama manga series written and illustrated by Naoshi Arakawa. It was serialised in a monthly magazine from 2011 to 2015.
Aimed at young adults and hugely popular, this graphic novel has sold 5 million copies. It has already been made into a play, an anime television series and a live action movie.
It was turned into a musical by Frank Wildhorn in 2020; but its premiere was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. There was a concert version in English at Drury Lane in March and now there is a production in the West End. The cast is wholly South-East Asian. The audience is also largely South-East Asian and extremely partisan.
Kosei, a brilliant 14-year-old prodigy pianist loses his ability to play the piano on his mother’s sudden death. He has a mental breakdown and a mental block. He can no longer hear the music. Kaori, a 14-year-old prodigy violinist, who fancies him, asks him to accompany her in a highly competitive classical musical competition in the hope that it will cure and heal him.
The child prodigies are played by two grown-up actors. Zheng Xi Yong sings, acts and plays the piano. Yong, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music (MA in Musical Theatre – Distinction ), gets a standing ovation in the middle of the show for his virtuoso piano playing. Mia Kobayashi sings, acts and mimes playing the violin. Akiko Ishikawa plays the violin, standing by her side.
Your Lie in April, directed and choreographed by Nick Winston, is naïve, simplistic and repetitive. It is not the heart wrenching cherry blossom tearjerker I had hoped it was going to be.
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