Student Blog: Welcome Home

Back in high school, I had big plans for New York City. I was going to major in musical theatre at New York University, become an acclaimed singer-songwriter, and make my Broadway debut before I graduated. As you might have guessed, things have not exactly gone as planned. I'm currently majoring in history, haven't written a song in years, and have zero professional acting experience. My second plan was to study in France for two years and then study in New York for two years, and that was going pretty well until the pandemic. So here I am with 2 years of living in France under my belt along with a painful years worth of online school, and still no living in New York! It's been over three years since I graduated high school but here I am, finally living in New York City, the city I've dreamed of living in since I was little.

But even with all of these changes, you never could have convinced me that the first Broadway show that I would see as a resident of New York would be Springsteen on Broadway. Bruce Springsteen? The guy my dad's obsessed with? Sure, I like some of his songs, but why would I go to a solo show that's 140 minutes long with no intermission? But I wanted to do something nice for my dad's birthday and was so desperate to be back in a Broadway seat that I would've seen anything. To be honest, I probably would have paid full price for Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark if I had to keep going without live theatre for much longer.

So here I was, my first Broadway show as a New Yorker, sitting with my dad and drinking my overpriced drink, unsure how to feel about what I was about to experience. Then the lights went down and I got a thrill of excitement as the "no photography" announcement blared. People began chanting and at first I thought they were booing until I realized they were all calling out a name - "Bruuuuuuuuuuce." And then, the man of the hour (or 140 minutes) appeared, strumming on his guitar, and my world was forever changed.

Springsteen on Broadway is one of the best storytelling experiences that I have witnessed on a New York stage in years, maybe in forever. Bruce Springsteen is truly a master of his craft, weaving a heartfelt autobiography on stage through speech and song. As someone who knew very little about Springsteen's personal life and was only aware of his popular songs like "Born in the U.S.A." and "Born to Run," I left the show feeling as if I now had a personal connection with the man and his songs. I won't be spoiling anything from the show as it is truly something that needs to be experienced in person, diving in headfirst without any hint of what is to come.

This week I will be reading the autobiography that Springsteen on Broadway is based on, titled Born to Run. I look forward to comparing it to the show and learning a bit more about the fascinating artist known as Bruce Springsteen.

Tickets for Springsteen on Broadway can be purchased on SeatGeek. You can also enter the lottery on Lucky Seat for $75 tickets. You can also watch a recorded performance of the original run of the show on Netflix.