"Springsteen on Broadway" is a hit, setting records during its first week.
Bruce Springsteen has grossed $2.33 million after five performances at the 975-seat Walter Kerr Theatre, Forbes reported, behind only "Hamilton" and "Hello, Dolly!" for the week, which both performed eight shows.
It also is the highest grossing show in the theater's history, Forbes said. That's thanks to The Boss' fans shelling out $497 for the debut, which set another record: the highest ticket prices in Broadway history.
In the show, Springsteen mixes personal stories, some found in his memoir "Born to Run" released last year, with some of his biggest hits, including "My Hometown," "Born in the U.S.A.," "Brilliant Disguise," and "Dancing in the Dark," before closing with the signature "Born to Run," according to Deadline.
Andy Greene of Rolling Stone magazine said that for the singer's fans, it was worth the hefty cost.
"There's no room for his usual athleticism here – Springsteen just shuffles a few feet between a piano on stage left and a microphone at center stage," Greene wrote. "The intensity is, instead, emotional, as Springsteen digs hard into the bedrock of his life story, and ours: childhood, religion, work, death.
"The performance is hard to categorize. It's not a concert; not a typical one-man-show; certainly not a Broadway musical. But it is one of the most compelling and profound shows by a rock musician in recent memory," he continued.
Variety reported Springsteen is by himself on stage except for two songs he performs with Patti Scialfa, his wife and E Street Band member. He plays piano, harmonica, and series of acoustic guitars during the performance.
"'Springsteen on Broadway' is as much a self-made monument to its master's vision and hurricane-force ambition as it is to his life and career, and it bears the mark of a self-made man who'll write his own history, thank you very much," Variety's Jem Aswad wrote.
Bobby Olivier of NJ Advance Media, though, said Springsteen's Broadway performance was little more than the artist treading well-worn territory that many in the audience already knew.
"Sorry to break the bad news, Bruce fans, but Springsteen's choice to develop this four-month residency in New York by himself, without the help of a stage-savvy director, has proven a cavalier and foolish decision by the rock icon -- the arc of this disjointed production is saved only by its music and the exclusivity of its venue," Olivier wrote.
"He would've saved himself some trouble simply rocking a straight, two-hour acoustic set and selling his audiobook with the candy and cocktails," he added.