Springsteen on Broadway is a treat for fans of The Boss, an intimate self-portrait of the rock icon where he unplugs from the arena rock that’s defined his onstage showmanship without losing much of the power, poetry, or social insights that have made Bruce Springsteen one of America’s most important and beloved musical artists. And yet Springsteen on Broadway draws a line at how much of the man’s inner life it chooses to reveal, coming up short as a full portrait of who he is now as opposed to who his fans thought he was then.
Recorded during his celebrated 2018 run on the Great White Way, this Netflix program sees Springsteen recount his life and career through spoken word and song. He’s alone onstage, without his famous E Street Band, with only a guitar, harmonica, and piano for musical accompaniment. Springsteen has gone it alone before so that’s not especially novel, but seeing Bruce do a one-man stage show feels different here because he’s not only deconstructing his own mythology but also essentially portraying a character: The Boss as an old man looking back on his life. In some ways Springsteen on Broadway has more in common with one-man plays where an actor portrays a legend like Mark Twain or Clarence Darrow than it does your typical concert program or showbiz documentary. It’s part-confession, part-performance art.
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Recorded during his celebrated 2018 run on the Great White Way, this Netflix program sees Springsteen recount his life and career through spoken word and song. He’s alone onstage, without his famous E Street Band, with only a guitar, harmonica, and piano for musical accompaniment. Springsteen has gone it alone before so that’s not especially novel, but seeing Bruce do a one-man stage show feels different here because he’s not only deconstructing his own mythology but also essentially portraying a character: The Boss as an old man looking back on his life. In some ways Springsteen on Broadway has more in common with one-man plays where an actor portrays a legend like Mark Twain or Clarence Darrow than it does your typical concert program or showbiz documentary. It’s part-confession, part-performance art.
Continue reading…
Continue reading...