One of the Great Concert Movies
Bono’s Stories of Surrender is both a theatrical book tour and a companion memoir edition, built around his 2022 autobiography, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story. It combines live performance, storytelling, and reimagined U2 songs to explore his life, faith, activism, and family.
Starting November 2, 2022, at New York’s Beacon Theatre and proceeding with a 14-city tour across North America and Europe, Bono performed what he described as stripped-down versions of U2 songs while weaving in monologues from his memoir. In 2025, Andrew Dominik directed “Bono: Stories of Surrender,” an Apple TV+ documentary that captured the Beacon Theatre performance.
I never thought I would have the humility to listen to Bono tell his life story. However, to my astonishment, his humility in “Bono: Stories of Surrender” captivated me. The man, on stage, without the rest of his U2 bandmates, is in a great voice and equally acceptable storytelling form as he guides us from his formative years in Dublin’s North Side to superstardom with U2 on the World stage.
The show is intimate and immersive, with Bono reflecting on childhood, the death of his mother, the rise of U2, his marriage, and his activism. His dad figures prominently in the narrative, which includes humorous anecdotes about Luciano Pavarotti, Lady Di and Pope John Paul II. As for the songs, WOW!
Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) (2023) A – TheBrownees
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