Before any confusion arises, let’s go ahead and explain that this headline doesn’t mean Bruce Springsteen has written a one-man show and will be performing it on The Great White Way. (Though if you’ve ever seen his episode of VH1’s Storytellers, you know that’s not far from what he’s done in the past.) No, the Boss has simply decided that he’d like to do another series of solo shows, but rather than take it on the road to the same hockey arenas and British Petroleum-branded state fair grounds that normally play host to his one-man performances, he’s going to try and keep it intimate. (“Springsteen—for you,” would be the hushed, come-hither whisper of the local New York TV ads for the show, if Springsteen actually needed to advertise and not rest content knowing the entire run will sell out in minutes.)
“Springsteen On Broadway” will be a roughly eight-week run, beginning Tuesday, October 3 and ending November 26, with Bruce doing five shows a week, all at the Walter Kerr theater. “I wanted to do some shows that were as personal and as intimate as possible,” Springsteen says in the press release. “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,” which is not exactly the most inspiring string of words he’s ever put together, but probably states his aim in as few syllables as possible, which is already unusual.
In yet another probably doomed effort to combat bots and professional scalpers, Ticketmaster has put together a presale registration, which involves getting a Ticketmaster account (shocker) and signing up to (hopefully be one of the randomly selected numbers to) receive a text prior to tickets going on sale for the general public. If chosen, fans will receive a code sometime the morning of August 30, in advance of the 10 a.m. ticket release. In other words, diehard fans can probably already look forward to telling their grandchildren, “Yes, I was one of the lucky few to sign up for Verified Fan Registration to see Bruce on Broadway back in 2017. What’s that? No, don’t be silly, only people who lived on the Upper West Side and made more than $400,000 a year actually got tickets. Now, go fetch me some more digital bourbon.”