Bruce Springsteen broke away from the script of his Broadway show on Tuesday night (19Jun18) to denounce U.S. President Donald Trump’s “inhumane” illegal immigration policy.
The Born to Run singer deviated from the usual script of his Springsteen on Broadway production, which consists of live performances, spoken word and anecdotes, to address the controversial zero-tolerance approach Trump and his administration have taken on illegal immigration, with officials currently separating parents from their kids as they are taken into custody after crossing the U.S. border from Mexico.
According to the Guardian, during his Tuesday night show, Springsteen used his performance to condemn “senior people in government” for the border policy, which he called “inhumane”. Writer Julie Owen Moylan also said on Twitter he called it “disgraceful, unAmerican and enraging” during a lengthy, unscripted monologue, and said it was everyone’s responsibility to make sure the “arc of the moral universe” bends towards justice.
“For 146 shows, I have played pretty much the same set every night. Tonight demands something different,” he told the audience at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York, which has been host to his residency since October (17).
He then played a version of his song The Ghost of Tom Joad, a protest song he recorded in 1995. With the song, named after a character in John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, he sought to give voice to the invisible and unheard and the disenfranchised.
Lyrics include, “Wherever somebody’s fighting for a place to stand/Or a decent job or a helping hand/Wherever somebody’s struggling to be free/Look in their eyes, Ma, and you’ll see me.”
Springsteen on Broadway has proved to be so successful the run has been extended twice, with it now scheduled to end in December.
