Bruce Springsteen’s Musical Memoir Opens on Broadway | THR News - video Dailymotion

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Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Edward Norton, Tina Fey, Jon Stewart, Nathan Lane, Andrew Lloyd Webber and longtime E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt were among those who were in attendance at 'Springsteen on Broadway' Thursday night.

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00:00The stars were certainly born to run to the opening of Bruce Springsteen's

00:07Broadway show. Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Edward Norton, Tina Fey, John Stewart,

00:12Nathan Lane, Andrew Lloyd Webber and longtime E Street band member Stephen Van Zandt

00:17were among those in attendance at Springsteen on Broadway Thursday night.

00:21So how was the show? The Hollywood Reporter theater critic David Rooney writes that

00:25the boss digs deep into his 2016 autobiography, Born to Run, as well as 15 songs from

00:31across his back catalog, weaving together a beautifully crafted reflection on his life,

00:35his career and his country, and reinventing even some last-chance power drive anthems

00:40as hymns of quiet introspection. The critic calls it an intimate quasi-acoustic

00:45bio concert, indeed. Springsteen is alone on stage throughout, though he is joined

00:49on two numbers by his wife, Patti Skjalfa, and it has the distinct feel of a

00:53thoughtfully conceived legacy show. Rooney also notes that removing most of the

00:58physicality from his performance also shifts the focus more squarely back to the rich

01:02literary qualities of his songwriting, fortifying a kinship with other iconic

01:06American singers like Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Tom Waits. The show virtually sold out

01:11its four-month run at the Walter Kerr Theater almost instantly, grossing over $2 million

01:15in its first week of previews. Given that it's playing only five performances a week

01:20in a theater with a seating capacity of $939, the hefty average ticket price of $497

01:26means that on a seat-by-seat basis, Springsteen on Broadway is even outselling

01:30Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton. The show's run has been extended through February 3rd,

01:35with theater pundits busy speculating if and how the production will figure in this season's

01:39Tony Awards next June. An early report emerged in the New York Post that the Tony

01:44nominating committee saw the show in previews and was sufficiently impressed to start

01:48buzz circulating about a possible special award. There's also a chance that the

01:52scripted show might be made eligible in competitive categories, assuming producers

01:56can find a way to accommodate more than 800 Tony voters, traditionally with plus ones.

02:01Springsteen is credited as writer and director, meaning he could in theory be a

02:05contender for book and direction of a musical. To read more about Springsteen on Broadway,

02:09including David Rooney's full review, head to THR.com, and tell us, will you be lucky

02:14enough to see the show during its run and which Springsteen song is most iconic in your eyes?

02:19Let us know in the comments section. For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Lindsay Rodriguez.

Bruce Springsteen’s Musical Memoir Opens on Broadway | THR News

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