Warning: contains spoilers

Springsteen on Broadway, The Walter Kerr Theatre NYC, 7th April 2018
Reviewed by Juniper Gavin

It’s Saturday night on Broadway, New York City and I am 3,500 miles from my hometown of Hastings. I’m with a school friend I have known since I was four years old but I haven’t seen for thirty years. We’ve just spent a lightning two hours catching up on lost time over pints of Guinness in a local bar. It’s a good way to start a Saturday night.

At five to eight we walk in to The Walter Kerr Theatre and just a few minutes after the hour we and 900 other souls are taken on the journey of a lifetime – Bruce Springsteen’s life story. Spoken words from his recent autobiography with songs from his whole career. The theatre is in darkness: from there we together go in search of light.

Springsteen on Broadway is a scripted one-man show. It begins with Growin’ Up. There is the story of renting a guitar because his mother could not afford to buy one. Bruce takes a few lessons on what his father has named ‘that fucking guitar’, which is returned to the store. We hear My Hometown and My Father’s House. The Wish is next, a joyful tribute to his mother.

We hit Thunder Road and The Promised Land, (introduced by a tale of Springsteen’s falling in love with the American desert). I feel like he is the driver now, telling jokes and recounting stories as we ride. I feel like it is just he and I in here.

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And then he talks about the Vietnam War, still a scar on the American psyche. He talks of Walter Cichon and Bart Haynes from bands in Asbury Park. Both were drafted and killed. He takes no pride in not making the draft and says, “I often think about who went in my place, because someone did…and they’re sending troops to the border now. What for?” There is a burning anger as he delivers Born in The USA in its original form. It is a brooding, slide-blues played on a 12-string guitar. It is heavy and haunting, a million miles from any fist pumping call to arms.

As he plays on he pays tribute to long time E-Street saxophonist Clarence Clemons then, returning to his father, he suddenly begins to weep for his loss. It’s as though he is offering himself here with a humbler gratitude.

We are lifted away as Dancing in the Dark segues into a section of Land of Hope and Dreams.

There’s no encore, just one more song to play, Born to Run. The audience stand, cheer and take out their phone cameras as Bruce waves, bows and exits stage right. This is a show that will run and run.

On Monday morning I rent a car and drive to Asbury Park, New Jersey. I arrive in a town that was once down at heel and depressed and is now being – well I have to say it – gentrified. The boardwalk is still deserted except for a few builders and dog walkers. New developments sit beside the old bars and wooden houses. I sit in a beachside cafe and overhear people discussing it, there are mixed feelings. It reminds me of somewhere else. I gaze out across the Atlantic. It is time to go home.

• Springsteen On Broadway runs until December 18th 2018
Details here: https://brucespringsteen.net/broadway

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