This show was,,,,, awesome! I am a big fan, so my review is a bit bias. But honestly, I wasn't expecting much. I figured it be same old Bruce with just a guitar and belting out some old favorite hits. It wasn't. This was a real play/musical. Bruce actually acted. The show is scripted and goes through the life of Bruce Springsteen, from cradle to,,, well,,, now. His stories were scripted and narrated by him. He throws in a lot of humor through selective timing. The audience laughed a lot. His comedic timing was on,,, his acting ability was not. But that's what made it better. He was so authentic and you could see the poor rock star struggling through some of his lines, which only added to his authenticity and honest story telling.
And, it was moving. Towards the end, Bruce explained his feelings of aging and the losses of close ones that have brought intimacy into his life. You felt like you were having coffee in a living room setting with the guy. His presentation was so emotional that some of the audience around me flowed with tears. It was moving to see such a remarkable legend humble himself to the public and describe his true honest self, the reason for his success, and the portrait of those around him who colored his landscape through all the decades.
Not to get religious, and he self-proclaims not to be a true practicing faithful follower, but he ended the show's dialogue with the "Our Father" to explain a moving self moment of driving through the neighborhood where he was raised just recently. He stopped at night and got out of his car to look over the area he frequented as a child and reflected over the people that touched his life. When he looked down the street, the saw the steeple of the Catholic Church he would attend with his family. He said the only prayer that stuck in his Christian repertoire, the "Our Father ". It was moving.
The only bad part of the show is that it is two and half hours long with no intermission. It gets tough to hold those beers in for that long. Also, the theatre is small and so are the seats. You can to move at all! Your body is stuck in that position for 2 1/2 hours. I'm getting old and my circulation can't handle that.
But Bruce is a class act. He put on a true Broadway show. This should win awards. He audience was mesmerized and for the price of the ticket, it was worth every penny.
It's not often at all, that in our lifetime, a legend will sit with you, in your living room, and tell you his true story.
Bruce does. read more