Springsteen on Broadway is a solo acoustic performance written and performed by Bruce Springsteen under the lights of Broadway. It is an intimate night with Bruce, his guitar, a piano, and his stories.
"My vision of these shows is to make them as personal and intimate as possible. I chose Broadway for this project because it has the beautiful old theaters which seemed like the right setting for what I have in mind. In fact, with one or two exceptions, the 960 seats of the Walter Kerr Theatre is probably the smallest venue I’ve played in the last 40 years. My show is just me, the guitar, the piano and the words and music. Some of the show is spoken, some of it is sung, all of it together is in pursuit of my constant goal - to communicate something of value," says Springsteen.
The moment showed the power and charm of the 68-year-old rocker. It also reminded that the show - a soldout sensation before a note was sung or word was spoken - is not a just a concert in a Broadway theater. Threaded with 15 songs and stories pulled from his year-old memoir, 'Born to Run,' the Broadway debut of New Jersey's finest is a tightly scripted chronological narrative tracing his life.
Despite the relative lack of spontaneity (except when the crowd began clapping along on 'Dancing in the Dark' and he said with a smile, 'I'll handle it myself, thanks!'), the show is not a glorified audiobook. Springsteen's everyman persona can obscure his deep intelligence and formidable talent as a wordsmith: He has a novelist's eye for detail ('My mom's high heels would echo down the linoleum hallway'; 'My dad's favorite bar smelled of beer, perspiration and after-shave') and a master politician's gift for flow, impact, rhythm and the ability to speak intimately to many. The show is loaded with great lines and we'll spoil just a few of them: 'I come from a boardwalk town where everything is tinged with a bit of fraud - including me'; 'Those whose love we wanted but couldn't get, we emulate'; 'I have never held an honest job in my entire life.'
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