''Springsteen on Broadway'' is a

concert residency A concert residency (also known as musical residency or simply residency) is a series of concerts, similar to a concert tour, but performed at only one location. The ''Pollstar'' Awards defined a residency as a run of 10 or more shows at a sing ...

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...

held at the

Walter Kerr Theatre The Walter Kerr Theatre, previously the Ritz Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 219 West 48th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. The theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was constructe ...

and St. James Theatre in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The original residency at the Walter Kerr Theatre consisted of Springsteen performing five shows a week, Tuesday through Saturday. Preview performances began on October 3, 2017, followed by the official opening on October 12, 2017. The run was originally expected to conclude on November 26, 2017; however, due to high demand for tickets and issues with scalpers, additional dates were added through June 30, 2018. The show was extended a second time on March 20, 2018, extending the run through December 15, 2018. On June 7, 2021, Springsteen announced a limited 31-show run of ''Springsteen on Broadway'' at the St. James Theatre beginning on June 26, 2021, with additional performances through September 4, 2021. The shows featured Springsteen, solo, playing guitar and piano, performing his music, restating incidents from his 2016 autobiography, '' Born to Run'', and performing other spoken reminiscences written for the show. Springsteen's wife, Patti Scialfa, also appeared at most shows. The residency at the Walter Kerr Theatre grossed over $113 million from a total of 236 shows.

Background

On June 16, 2017, information leaked that Bruce Springsteen would be performing an eight-week run on Broadway in New York City at the 960-seat Walter Kerr Theatre in the fall of 2017. On August 9, 2017, the performances were made official by Springsteen's website. "Bruce has had this specific idea in mind since last December. It came into focus slowly and then all at once last January," Springsteen's manager

Jon Landau Jon Landau (born May 14, 1947) is an American music critic, manager, and record producer. He has worked with Bruce Springsteen. He is the head of the nominating committee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and received that institution's Ahme ...

said in a statement. Springsteen said of the performances, "I wanted to do some shows that were as personal and as 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. It loosely follows the arc of my life and my work. All of it together is in pursuit of my constant goal to provide an entertaining evening and to communicate something of value." The creative team for ''Springsteen on Broadway'' included Heather Wolensky (scenic design), Natasha Katz (lighting design) and Brian Ronan (sound design). On September 19, 2017, Springsteen performed a rehearsal show at

Monmouth University Monmouth University is a private university in West Long Branch, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1933 as Monmouth Junior College, it became Monmouth College in 1956 and Monmouth University in 1995 after receiving its university charter, c ...

that was invitation only and attended by around 200 family members and close friends. During episode 3 of the '' Renegades'' podcast he co-hosted with former president

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

, Springsteen revealed the initial inspiration for the show came from a private concert he performed at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

during the final month of the Obama Presidency. According to Springsteen, President Obama and First Lady

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama ( Robinson; born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, being married to Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United Stat ...

both encouraged Springsteen to turn the performance into a show. Springsteen announced an additional limited run of performances at the St. James Theatre from June 26 to September 4, 2021. He said, "I loved doing ''Springsteen on Broadway'' and I’m thrilled to have been asked to reprise the show as part of the reopening of Broadway". Proceeds from the opening night were to be donated to a group of local New York and New Jersey charities including the Boys and Girls Club of Monmouth County, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Community FoodBank of New Jersey,

Food Bank For New York City Food Bank For New York City is a non-profit social services organization and the major hunger-relief organization working against hunger in the five boroughs. Its aim is to organize food, information and support for needy citizens of New York Cit ...

, Fulfill (

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& Ocean Counties Foodbank),

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

Cares, NJ Pandemic Relief Fund, and

Actors Fund of America The Entertainment Community Fund, formerly The Actors Fund, is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that supports performers and behind-the-scenes workers in performing arts and entertainment, helping more than 17,000 people directly each year. Se ...

. Springsteen said that Landau and Jordan Roth, owner of Broadway's

Jujamcyn Theaters Jujamcyn Theaters LLC , formerly the Jujamcyn Amusement Corporation, is a theatrical producing and theatre-ownership company in New York City. For many years Jujamcyn was owned by James H. Binger, former chairman of Honeywell, and his wife, Virg ...

, pitched him the idea, but it was a "friend" who came to his home and talked him into doing more shows. "It gives me something to do this summer so I won’t be lazying around on the beach. I knew we were going to tour with the

E Street Band The E Street Band is an American rock band that has been the primary backing band for rock musician Bruce Springsteen since 1972. In 2014, the E Street Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the bulk of Springsteen's recordin ...

next year so I said I'll take some time off”, Springsteen said. He also said that he would like to present the show as it was originally when it debuted in October 2017, saying, “I'd like to tighten it up a little bit, if anything. I would like to sort of get it closer to what it was when I initially debuted it on Broadway than the way it was toward the end.”

Tickets

In response to major issues with scalping and resales on previous Springsteen tours, tickets were made available exclusively through Ticketmaster Verified Fan, a system put into place by Ticketmaster in February 2017. Ticket prices ranged from $75 to $850. Despite Ticketmaster's efforts to eliminate bots and resellers, tickets immediately appeared on resale sites such as

StubHub StubHub is an American ticket exchange and resale company. It provides services for buyers and sellers of tickets for sports, concerts, theater, and other live entertainment events. By 2015, it was the world's largest ticket marketplace. While ...

minutes after they went on sale. Several hundred tickets were available on StubHub with prices ranging from $1,800 to $6,700. Due to scalper issues and the original run of dates selling out in minutes, Springsteen announced the residency would continue until February 3, 2018, with tickets for the newly announced dates going on sale September 7, 2017. A second extension to June 30, 2018, was later announced, with no new registrations being taken. Instead, people who had previously registered but were unable to get tickets would be contacted to give them the opportunity to purchase seats. Tickets for the second run of limited performances in 2021 went on sale June 10, 2021, through the show’s official ticketing provider SeatGeek. Audience members were required to provide proof of full COVID-19 vaccination to enter the theatre.

Program

Songs were interspersed with spoken word passages. The program below reflects the most common set of songs performed during the residency; see notes below for changes to the program made over the span of the residency. # " Growin' Up" (from '' Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.'') # " My Hometown" (from '' Born in the U.S.A.'') # "My Father's House" (from ''Nebraska'') # "The Wish" (from ''Tracks'') # " Thunder Road" (from '' Born to Run'') # " The Promised Land" (from '' Darkness on the Edge of Town'') # " Born in the U.S.A." (from ''Born in the U.S.A.'') # " Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" (from ''Born to Run'') # " Tougher Than the Rest" (from ''Tunnel of Love'') # " Brilliant Disguise" (from ''Tunnel of Love'') # " Long Walk Home" (from '' Magic'') # " The Rising" (from ''The Rising'') # " Dancing in the Dark" (from ''Born in the U.S.A.'') # " Land of Hope and Dreams" (from ''Wrecking Ball'') # " Born to Run" (from ''Born to Run'')

Changes to program

* "

The Ghost of Tom Joad ''The Ghost of Tom Joad'' is the eleventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on November 21, 1995, by Columbia Records. His second primarily acoustic album after ''Nebraska'' (1982), ''The Ghost of Tom Joad'' r ...

" was performed during previews, placed before "Long Walk Home," in place of "The Rising." * "Long Time Comin'", from '' Devils & Dust'', was paired with "The Ghost of Tom Joad" for instances in which Patti Scialfa was unable to perform in the show, replacing "Tougher than the Rest" and "Brilliant Disguise," respectively; the first instance of this was on December 26, 2017, due to Scialfa catching the flu, and occurred sporadically thereafter. * On June 19, 2018, Springsteen deviated from the show's script after "Brilliant Disguise" to condemn the

Trump administration family separation policy The family separation policy under the First presidency of Donald Trump, first Trump administration was a controversial immigration enforcement strategy implemented in the United States from 2017 to 2018, aimed at Immigration policy of the f ...

and performed "The Ghost of Tom Joad" in place of "Long Walk Home," retaining this change for every show thereafter. * On July 10, 2018, Springsteen performed an encore consisting of "This Hard Land" from his

greatest hits album A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be creat ...

to make up for a shortened show that did not feature Scialfa, where only "Long Time Comin'" was performed in place of "Tougher Than the Rest" and "Brilliant Disguise," as "The Ghost of Tom Joad" was already in the set. Springsteen allowed fans to take photos and film the encore performance. * For the 2021 run, Springsteen changed three songs. " I'll See You In My Dreams", from his latest album '' Letter to You'', replaced "Born to Run," "

Fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a fuel in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. Flames, the most visible portion of the fire, are produced in the combustion re ...

" replaced "Brilliant Disguise," and " American Skin (41 Shots)" replaced "The Ghost of Tom Joad" after some remarks about the ongoing civil unrest.

Netflix special and soundtrack album

''Springsteen on Broadway'' premiered on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

in the early morning of December 16, 2018, just hours after the final Broadway performance closed. Filming for the concert special took place July 17 and 18, 2018, with a private audience in attendance. A

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ( ...

was released on December 14, 2018, to widespread acclaim from critics, including

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

, who said "the Springsteen

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this most recalls isn't like any earlier album but the 2016 autobiography he called '' Born to Run'' for better reasons than you might imagine. Like that fast-reading 508-pager, its aim is to simultaneously depict and demythologize the

Jersey shore The Jersey Shore, commonly called the Shore by locals, is the coast, coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The term encompasses about of shore, oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Perth Amboy in the n ...

and poke major holes in an authenticity it reconceives at a truer level of complexity".

Critical reaction

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' said "as portraits of artists go, there may never have been anything as real – and beautiful – on Broadway". ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' noted "it is one of the most compelling and profound shows by a rock musician in recent memory". ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' observed "there's a fragility and a new light cast on the songs and his relationship with Scialfa, as if he stands in her emotional shadow". '' Variety'' reported the show "is as much a self-made monument to its master's vision and hurricane-force ambition as it is to his life and career, and it bears the mark of a

self-made man A self-made man is a person whose success is of their own making. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, has been described as the greatest exemplar of the self-made man. Inspired by Franklin's autobiography, Fr ...

who’ll write his own history". On June 10, 2018, Springsteen received a Special Tony Award for ''Springsteen on Broadway'' at the 72nd Tony Awards.

Awards and nominations

Personnel

* Bruce Springsteen – lead vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica * Patti Scialfa – backing vocals on "Brilliant Disguise" and "Tougher Than the Rest"

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control Bruce Springsteen concert tours 2017 concert residencies 2018 concert residencies Concert residencies on Broadway Netflix specials 2021 concert residencies