Theatre review: Your Lie In April

PREVIEW DISCLAIMER: As all seats for Your Lie In April's preview period are being sold at the same price, I wasn't going to miss the chance to see a show in a West End theatre from a seat where the stage was actually visible, so I went before the official press night.

For the latest in the West End's unofficial East Asian season the Harold Pinter Theatre is decked out in the familiar cherry blossom so we know we're back in Japan: Your Lie In April is based on Naoshi Arakawa's popular teen romance manga, which makes it an interesting contrast to last week's Marie Curie, a Korean take on a European story that very much followed a Western musical template: Here a largely Western creative team takes on a Japanese storytelling tradition, and while Frank Wildhorn (music,) Carly Robyn Green and Tracy Miller (lyrics,) Riko Sakaguchi and Rinne B Groff (book) offer up another slice of Broadway-friendly music, Nick Winston and Jordan Murphy's production maintains a cartoonish feel that reminds us of its comic book origins with a distinctively Japanese flavour of cheese.