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Broadway’s historic reopening is on its way, and everyone prepares for a fresh start in mid or late September. Actors are rehearsing and the theater staff is brushing the dust off the seats. They were empty for more than a year that actually felt like an eternity. And then, there’s one open theater and one show is out there kicking it while others rehearse. You can expect it from Bruce Springsteen. The Boss is putting a limited run of his highly successful show “Springsteen on Broadway” in the St. James Theater. Tickets for Springsteen on Broadway are still plentiful but are sold-out by the hour, so hurry up!
Springsteen on Broadway
The Second Run
The show opened for its second run on Broadway under high expectations that Springsteen managed to answer the expectations in style. It premiered on June 26 and is planned to have its final staging on September 4 – ten days before the scheduled grand reopening.
St James Theater
St. James Theater is one of the five Jujamcyn-owned theaters on Broadway. It is located at 246 West 44th Street in midtown Manhattan. The venue has a seating capacity of 1710 (one of the five with a capacity of 1700+), separated into three levels – Orchestra, Mezzanine, and Balcony. During the years, St James has been the home of high-profile shows like Frozen, Present Laughter, Something Rotten!, and Side Show. After the run of Springsteen on Broadway ends, the theater will become the home of David Byrne’s American Utopia. It is planned to debut on September 17.
The box office record is held by Frozen. The production grossed $2,624,495 over eight performances for the week ending December 30, 2018.
Tickets for Springsteen on Broadway
Primary market
Seat Geek and the St. James Theater’s box office deliver the tickets for Springsteen on Broadway on the primary market. Tickets are plentiful and the cool thing is that you’ll be able to find even last-minute tickets at a normal price.
For example – tickets for the performance tonight start at $414 and at $525 for the next few days. For the showcased price you’ll get a ticket for Mezzanine Right, Row L. This provides a decent view towards the stage but is a bit too far. Tickets at Row Q in Mezzanine Right are labeled as “Best Deal”. They cost $547 USD includes $131 fees.
Tickets for the Orchestra start at $775 + $127 fees for rows in the middle of the sides. The orchestra has the most expensive tickets. Orchestra Left, Row T costs $3,441 USD + $813 fees is probably the priciest seat you can find on Seat Geek.
The situation is pretty much the same when it comes to the next days, but with higher prices. Costs vary seriously between $525 and over $1000. Tickets for the final evening of Springsteen on Broadway (September 4) start at $960 + $160 fees. There’s a good amount of tickets available. This, along with the fact, that this is the closing event of the show, explains the sky-high price of some tickets. They reach $12,296 + $2,901 fees. This makes the stunning price of $15 197 for a single ticket.
Secondary Market
Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster is in the unusual position of being a secondary reseller in the case of Springsteen on Broadway. They provide a pretty good amount of tickets, including cheap tickets for the Mezzanine starting at $409. Regular ticket prices gravitate around $500 and on rare occasions can reach up to above $5000.
Vivid Seats
Vivid Seats starts with a rich inventory. The cheapest tickets for Springsteen on Broadway start at around $410 and have a good number of passes priced below $500. What comes as a surprise is the lack of expensive tickets. Those that cost over $4000 are a rarity.
Vaccination Requirements
All ticket holders aged 16 and above must be fully vaccinated with FDA or WHO-approved vaccines. All ticket holders under the age of 16 who have not been vaccinated, as well as those who need reasonable arrangements due to disabilities or sincere religious beliefs, must present this Proof of a negative COVID-19 test and a mask must always be worn correctly when in the building, except when sitting to eat or drink. Ticket holders under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult who meets the above requirements.
All seating for Springsteen on Broadway will not be socially distanced, and mask-wearing is not required, reports go on to say.
Plot and Setlist
Face it, we all want to spend an evening in the company of The Boss. The show includes some songs along with a good deal of storytelling. The whole event is based on his worldwide best-selling autobiography ‘Born to Run’ and includes cool stories like The United States of America v. Bruce Springsteen, stories on his parents, and, most of the time – duets with his wife Patti Scialfa.
The setlist may vary, but usually includes some of Springsteen’s evergreens like Thunder Road, Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out, and Born in the USA.
Critical acclaim
As I mentioned above, Springsteen on Broadway had to fill the shoes of the success of his first run. And again, as I mentioned, The Boss did it in amazing fashion, leaving critics in awe!
Jem Aswad
THE BULK OF THE SHOW IS LARGELY SIMILAR TO THE FIRST RUN — WHICH VARIETY REVIEWED DURING ITS OCTOBER 2017 PREVIEWS, AGAIN FIVE MONTHS LATER AND SPOKE WITH HIM ABOUT — YET THERE WERE SOME STRIKING DIFFERENCES. HE YELLED AND CASUALLY CURSED A BIT MORE, AND CERTAIN REMINISCES — WHICH ARE BASED ON HIS “BORN TO RUN” AUTOBIOGRAPHY — HAVE BEEN CUT, ABRIDGED, RUSHED OR EXTENDED, AS WOULD ANYONE WHO’S TELLING THE SAME STORY FOR THE 237TH TIME. HE ALSO CHANGED UP HIS DELIVERY ON SEVERAL SONGS IN A SINGALONG-DEFYING WAY: “GROWIN’ UP” HAD JITTERY STRUMMING; “BORN IN THE U.S.A.” IS EVEN MORE OF A GOSPEL-BLUES HOLLER, PLAYED WITH A SLIDE ON 12-STRING GUITAR; HE SANG “THUNDER ROAD” IN HIS WOODY GUTHRIE-ESQUE SEMI-SOUTHERN ACCENT.
ANDY GREENE
The first deviation from the 2017/18 song list came during the Patti Scialfa segment of the show where they followed up the usual “Tougher Than The Rest” with a fun, flirty duet on “Fire.” It was a great showcase for Scialfa’s vocals and a better representation of their love for each other than the sorrowful “Brilliant Disguise” from the old show.
The political section followed, and he dropped his dated references to Trump and Charlottesville with a new speech about the world in 2021. “We are living in troubled and troubling times,” he said. “I don’t believe I’ve seen, certainly not in my lifetime, [a time] when democracy itself, not just who is going to be running the show for the next four years, but the survival of democracy itself was as deeply threatened. The Rule of Law, Bill of Rights, and the Constitution have been so cavalierly bludgeoned, disrespected, and tread upon that I’m frightened for us. I understand those folks out in the street. It’s scary times filled with confusion.”
Springsteen on Broadway, the 2017 – 2018 run
Springsteen on Broadway first set foot on the stage of the Walter Kerr Theater on October 12, 2017, and called it a night on June 30, 2018. By that time, the show ran for 236 performances in front of a packed hall with a box office of a total of $113,058,952.
In Conclusion
The Boss is one of the iconic figures of American music and culture in general. It comes as rather symbolic that he is the first to perform on Broadway, leading the way for the long-awaited reopening. Be sure to see Springsteen on Broadway. Spending an evening with Bruce is worth every minute and every penny!
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