Bruce Springsteen Previews ‘Springsteen On Broadway’

On October 3, Bruce Springsteen will start previews for his Springsteen On Broadway show that is expected to run through February at the intimate Walter Kerr Theater in New York City. The Boss spoke about the upcoming residency for a New York Times preview.

Bruce revealed the idea for the residency came from the success of a concert he played at the White House on January 12 as President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama’s going away gift to a group of approximately 250 staffers. “There was a lot of storytelling, which goes back to our early days at the Bottom Line when you were in front of a couple of hundred people,” The Boss told Jon Pareles of the New York Times. “It worked in a very, very intimate setting.”

The White House performance went so well, Bruce and his wife (Patti Scialfa) and manager (Jon Landau) thought the format would be an ideal experience for many fans. “The way he combines the spoken words with the songs he’s chosen to do sounds like a very simple thing,” Landau said. “But it’s a real piece of performance art.”

Springsteen also revealed details about what to expect from the upcoming performances. Bruce will be onstage for two hours surrounded by an array of guitars with a baby grand piano also at his disposal. “This isn’t a rock concert transported onto a small stage,” the theater’s president Jordan Roth said. “This is an experience of storytelling through word and through song, and that is what we do on Broadway. That is what the theater is.”

While The Boss plays “Born To Run” nearly every night, he has varied his setlists on both solo tours and with the E Street Band more and more. Springsteen On Broadway will be a different situation. “This is a locked-in piece of music and script that I’m going to be performing pretty much the same on a nightly basis. It’s a solidified piece of work. And I think the intimacy of the venue is going to really affect it, to make it quite a bit different from the acoustic tours. Though I don’t know if I’d be doing this without the experience of doing them,” Springsteen said.

Don’t expect video or a big production according to the New Jersey native. “Basically it’s a one-man show. There’s no production beyond the stage, some lights and some very high-quality sound. I thought anything beyond the song and the story ended up feeling too rigid and distracting. It happens every time we go to do a tour, you know?” Bruce explained. Springsteen also confirmed he finished a new album, though he shared no details about what is in store.

Head to the New York Times for much more from Bruce Springsteen.