You can find Tom Joad on Broadway.
Bruce Springsteen went off script to play his song "The Ghost of Tom Joad" during the Tuesday, June 19 performance of "Springsteen on Broadway" as a protest against the administration of President Donald Trump's immigration policy of separating children from their parents, detained for illegal immigration.
"For 146 shows, I have played pretty much the same set every night. Tonight demands something different," said Springsteen from the stage of the Walter Kerr Theatre, according to the Guardian.
Springsteen spoke at length to condemn the “inhumane” treatment of the thousands of children who have been separated from their parents, according to the report.
“The Ghost of Tom Joad” had been performed previously in “Springsteen on Broadway,” but the Boss has never substantially changed the script of the music play. The song, released in 1995, is inspired by John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath.”
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy called the immigration policy “inhumane and cruel” on Tuesday, Nearly a dozen governors are withholding their National Guard troops from the Southwest border in opposition to the policy.
A part of “Springsteen on Broadway” already did address current events and serve as an indictment of the perceived divisiveness of Trump without mentioning Trump’s name.
“Today, there are young men in torch-lit parades calling upon the most divisive and the ugliest ghosts of our past, and there’s so much else. Suddenly your neighbors and countrymen can look like complete strangers to you,” said Springsteen in the music play prior to performing “Long Walk Home.” “Martin Luther King said the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice. I hope that’s true. I believe what we’re seeing now is a bad chapter in the ongoing battle for the soul of the nation.”
The segment of the play is one of the few that does not adhere to Springsteen’s autobiography, “Born to Run.”
Springsteen recently won a Special Tony Awards for “Springsteen on Broadway.”