If you were visiting New York City in the late 90’s/early 00’s and you wanted to see a Broadway musical, much of your choice would have been dominated by the work of Frank Wildhorn. Between 1997 and 2004, the pop songwriter turned theatre composer was responsible for four Broadway musicals – Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Civil War and Dracula, the Musical.

Critical and commercial success, however, would not come to Wildhorn on his home turf (he is a native of New York City), but elsewhere throughout the world – specifically south-east Asia, where Wildhorn shows have been produced by the bucket-load over the last fifteen years.

Such is Wildhorn’s popularity in Japan and Korea, that the composer has written several works exclusively for these markets. Now though, his pop-infused theatre music may be finding a home in London’s West End, where Bonnie & Clyde, Death Note and, now, Your Lie In April have all received high-profile stagings.

It is no coincidence that all three of these shows got their London start in concert form. In these challenging economic times, many producers are turning to the one-night-only concert format to put on performances both of existing much-loved works (The Witches of Eastwick, Spring Awakening) and new untried works (the Wildhorn shows, as well as others like Wild About You and Treason). Choosing this style of production also benefits Wildhorn shows (driven, as they often are, by powerful music) by placing the material front-and-centre. No complex set necessary for a concert, but a-list casting and a sizeable orchestra are more achievable than in a full West End run.

Economically, producers are also tempted by the potential ticket sales in one of the West End’s many “barn” theatres – primarily LW Theatres’ Theatre Royal Drury Lane and The London Palladium, and these concerts help keep these venues open at a time when productions are struggling to shift over 2000 tickets per night.

The success of some of these concerts has led to full productions, primarily Wildhorn’s Bonnie & Clyde, which had a successful run at the Arts Theatre, but fared less well on its subsequent UK tour. And this time it’s the turn of manga-adaptation Your Lie In April which opens at the Harold Pinter for a summer run.

For those unfamiliar with the manga, Your Lie In April centres around Kōsei, a high school student and child piano prodigy whose musical talents have been lying dormant since the death of his mother. So traumatised was he by her overbearing nature and tragic death, that he feels he can no longer “hear” the piano, rendering him unable to play. Enter Kaori, a fellow student with a talent for violin. Her free-spirited ways, however, lead to criticism from the musical establishment, who feel that her unique and improvisatory approach to performing music is too radial and doesn’t “respect the score”. Could friendship and collaboration with Kaori be Kōsei’s key to rediscovering his musical abilities, and coming to terms with the death of his mother?

Zheng Zi Yong and Mia Kobayashi as Kōsei and Kaori are undoubtedly the highlights of this production. Their work is playful and childlike but also has moments of great pathos, and emotional chemistry. Even if much of the development of these characters happens offstage, both actors know when to simply let the music speak, which pays dividends as the show takes on a more serious edge in the second act. There’s lovely supporting work from Rachel Clare Chan and a standout comic turn from Dean John Wilson, although he may now be at the “pushing it a bit” end of the age spectrum to believably play a teenager.

Wildhorn’s score is as contemporary and poppy as the composer has ever sounded, with pulsing ballads backed by acoustic guitars and sweeping strings – expertly orchestrated by Broadway veteran Jason Howland and played by a nine-piece band under the direction of Chris Poon. It does feel like something of a missed opportunity for Wildhorn to not have more skilfully weaved his score in and out of the featured classical music, but it’s the lyrics of Tracy Miller and Carly Robyn Green which really let the score down. They certainly get their money’s worth out of their rhyming dictionary, not to mention their book of flowery poetic clichés; but with few exceptions, their work is not rooted in character or plot in any way nearing the level required for successful theatre lyrics.

That is, as far as I could hear. Rob Bettle’s sound design sadly promotes volume over clarity, so although the audience can hear everything being played and sung, they’re often unable to hear the specific details of lyrics and instrumentation. This is particularly a problem whenever Zheng Zi Yong plays the piano onstage. Being a digital keyboard in a mock grand piano body means that his classical playing is at the mercy of the levels set by the designer, and the audience is therefore denied the dynamic range required for the Rachmaninov Prelude forming the musical centrepiece of the second act.

Justin Williams’s set is a thing of beauty, and the designer cleverly opts for poetic impressionism rather than manga pastiche, meaning that he is able to get much out of relatively little. It’s a shame the budget didn’t stretch further to allow more set changes, but Williams works incredibly well with what he’s been given.

Whether or not this show succeeds will very much depend on whether or not it can attract a Japanese audience base throughout the challenging summer months. Producers will no doubt be watching on keenly to decide whether or not the production has potential for a further life in the UK, or perhaps even back on Wildhorn’s home turf.

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