Bruce Springsteen misted up several times during opening night of his ‚Springsteen on Broadway‘ return — and added three songs to the set.
It goes without saying that a lot has happened since “Springsteen on Broadway” finished its first run on December 15,2018. And although most theaters remained closed on this sultry summer Saturday evening two and a half years later, the Boss has seen fit to lead Broadway’s reopening, as if to give a cautiously optimistic signal to audiences — hey, if Bruce thinks it’s okay, it should be okay. However, as we bustled toward the St. James Theatre for opening night of his autobiographically-themed show’s second run, it was clear that the people in the packed-to-almost-pre-pandemic-level Times Square (maybe a third of whom were masked) had already gotten the memo. Announced less than three weeks ago, this summer-long second run came as a surprise: After 14 months,236 performances, a $113 million-plus gross, an album and a Netflix film, the “Broadway” book seemed closed. But like that change-of-heart master Neil Young, Springsteen obeys an inner voice only he can hear — one that tells him to abandon completed albums; to announce that he and his band are going on a long tour just weeks after he’s told them they’re not; and to cut half the songs from “The River” in the middle of the tour celebrating that album’s 35th anniversary (replacing them with songs from his first two albums, naturally). The official explanation is that a friend suggested reviving the Broadway show, the man thought it “would be fun,” and here we are, but the bigger picture is that it’s a careful first step to major live performances before taking on the exponentially larger risks of an arena or stadium tour, which bandmembers (all of whom are in their 60s or 70s) have said is likely in 2022. Plus, the fact that “Springsteen on Broadway” Part II coincides precisely with public school summer vacation makes for a subtle, suitably Springsteenian theme. After passing a handful of anti-vaxxers protesting the show’s vaccine requirement — one of whose sign read “Bruce Springsteen is for segregation on Broadway” — we presented our digital ticket, proof of vaccination and photo I.D., and entered a theater buzzing with a level of anticipation high even for the Boomer-aged Boss faithful. Minutes before the lights dimmed, E Street Band guitarist Little Steven Van Zandt walked toward his fourth-row seat to a roar and standing ovation from the crowd, seemingly half of which then bounded forward to get a photo of the poor guy before he’d even sat down. (We’ll bet that’s one thing he hasn’t missed.) New Jersey Governor Pete Murphy (whose attendance was probably required by state law) and former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg were also in the house but did not receive a similar welcome. The Moment — that moment of Springsteen first walking onstage, after 15 months of a horrifying pandemic — would have seemed perfect for a dramatic, heartwarming, defining statement of resilience and hope about faith and unity and the endurance of the human spirit. But instead, after he’d quieted the whooping crowd with hand gestures, Springsteen jovially shouted, “Shut the fuck up, please!,” and started the show very similarly to the previous run’s beginning: “If you wanna be a big rock star, the first thing you’ve gotta do is have an image that you sell to the peoples,” following with him being raised in a part of the country built on Boardwalk fraud and he is no exception, and how his career and a show are a big magic trick — all leading into the opener, “Growin’ Up.
