Bruce Springsteen plans a series of Broadway fall concerts

NEW YORK » The Boss is coming to Broadway — but he’s ditching the E Street Band.

Bruce Springsteen said Wednesday on his website that he plans to make his Broadway debut onstage this fall at the Walter Kerr Theatre in a solo show in which he performs songs from his career, interspersed with readings of his best-selling memoir “Born to Run.”

“Springsteen on Broadway” begins previews Oct. 3 ahead of an Oct. 12 opening at the intimate 960-seat venue. The eight-week run is expected to play through Nov. 26. Springsteen will perform five shows a week.

“I wanted to do some shows that were as personal and as intimate as possible,” the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer said in a statement. “My show is just me, the guitar, the piano and the words and music. Some of the show is spoken, some of it is sung. It loosely follows the arc of my life and my work.”

The 67-year-old singersongwriter becomes the latest and biggest artist in years to book a Broadway concert, a list that includes Il Divo, Barry Manilow, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and The Rascals.

For Broadway theater owners, offering an empty venue to a band with a huge fan base offers a way to make money between scheduled musicals or plays. For Springsteen, who has played everything from Red Rocks in Colorado to Madison Square Garden in New York City, it offers another notch on the “Born to Run” singer’s resume.

In Springsteen’s new book, he reveals that his first marriage — to Julianne Phillips — caused him mental anguish; that he had surgery for cervical-disc problems on the left side of his neck; and that he was depressed earlier in his 60s.

Online: http:// brucespringsteen.net