LondonMusicalReview

Your Lie In April: The Musical in Concert – Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London

Reviewer: Sonny Waheed

Book: Riko Sakaguchi, based on the manga by Naoshi Arakawa

English Language Book: Rinne B. Groff

Music: Frank Wildhorn

Lyrics: Carly Robyn Green and Tracy Miller

Director: Nick Winston


If you’re not an anime fan, the excitement around a musical adaptation of Your Lie In April will probably have passed you by. It’s a love story that has captured the hearts and imaginations of manga devotees worldwide and, due to its tear-jerking ending, is often labelled the saddest manga ever written.

The high-school story centres around piano prodigy Kosei (Zheng Xi Yong) who, following his mother’s death early in his life, finds himself unable to play. Dogged by memories of his mother’s near-tyrannical approach to teaching him how to play and his final argumentative word with his mother, he is beset with fear, self-doubt and pain. This is manifested by him not being able to hear the piano any more: ‘I play the notes, but all I can hear are my fingers hitting the keys… I cannot hear the piano’.

In the final year in high school Kaori (Rumi Sutton), a young violinist, joins the school and becomes part of Kosei’s friendship group. As she works her way into his affections, she encourages him to help her with her music and slowly starts the process of bringing music and his own piano playing back into Kosei’s life.

Unfortunately, all is not well with Kaori and as their friendship blossoms, as his feelings for her deepen, and as his music returns, her illness takes a greater hold over her until she is hospitalised and set up for an experimental operation.

Your Lie In April takes the traditional high school love story and turns it upside down and inside out. It has everything that you expect from a teen romance, but with the overwhelming cloud of death, anxiety, and illness ever present, it offers a deeper and more emotionally charged story.

The production of a ‘musical in concert’ works very well. The staging is simple, almost like a rehearsal space, but it does the job perfectly. Although it’s ‘in concert’, it’s not just a collection of songs. There is an acted-out story. This is a musical like any other, with the exception of the heavily designed sets. Without the bells and whistles, focus is drawn intensely to the performances and, ultimately, the songs.

The cast across the board is enthusiastic and engaging. There’s a real energy and slightly exaggerated gesturing, that’s typical of manga which drives the performances. The vocal performances are equally enthusiastic, though it would be fair to say that, at times, Xi Yong’s voice feels stretched to beyond what’s comfortable.

The musical numbers feel a bit perfunctory. The songs all have a very similar feel to them and whilst there are some strong choruses that you know will be crowd-pleasers after you’ve heard them a few times, on first listen, it all feels a bit uninspiring.

However, the real issue with the show is that the emotional denouement is, for all intents and purposes, missing. The way the final third plays out is, if you don’t know the core story, slightly confusing. A lot is suggested, but nothing is clearly stated. And whilst that is a touching way of addressing the various elements, it doesn’t deliver the emotional punch the original manga did so well.

This version will be a treat for fans of the original. It fairly faithfully reinterprets the original story and, by giving the scenes a new soundtrack, will enable people to look at this through a slightly different emotional lens. And whilst there’s much to enjoy in the show, at the end of the day, you get the feeling that people will leave with a desire to rewatch the original film rather than come back to this.

Runs until 9 April 2024

The Reviews Hub Score

Enthusiastic and fun

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The Reviews Hub - London

The Reviews Hub London is under the editorship of Richard Maguire. The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. Our mission is to provide the most in-depth, nationwide arts coverage online.

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