Bono will make you sing, laugh and cry at Stories of Surrender limited engagement

NEW YORK – Bono stands alone in a spotlight with no accompaniment, liberating the 19th century Italian song "Torna a Surriento" from his insides.

His voice a beautiful rumble, the frontman for U2 unleashes the pain, glory, sorrow and joy he’s shared the past two hours through story and song.

Leading up to that stunning culmination – an ode to his late father, Brendan Hewson – you’ve felt the bruises on his heart. But with this finale, Bono will take whatever is left of your own heart and break it.

In October, the loquacious singer-writer-activist released his memoir, “Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.” A few weeks later, he embarked on a 14-city international tour to present passages from the book threaded with reframed versions of several U2 songs.

Bono at the Beacon Theatre in New York

Now, Bono is back for a spring run, taking place only at the Beacon Theatre in New York, with shows Friday and Saturday as well as seven scattered dates through May 8. Though tickets sold out instantly, production holds have just been released via ticketmaster.com for the May 4, 7 and 8 shows.

At the first of his return dates on Sunday, Bono joked about his U2 comrades continuing to indulge this solo detour. “I told the band it was one night only,” he said with a mischievous grin.

A relaxed storyteller with a flair for theatrical flourishes – he did lead U2 through tours adorned with space stations and massive mirror ball lemons, after all – Bono also proved a sincere, reflective host.

And, of course, a commanding singer.

Bono gets a musical boost even without U2

Backed only by musicians Gemma Doherty (harp, keyboard, vocals), Kate Ellis (cello, keyboard, vocals) and producer Jacknife Lee (musical director, electronic percussion), Bono studded the show with 17 U2 songs, opening with the band’s love letter to New York, “City of Blinding Lights” (“Lucky we, lucky me,” he improvised at the end of the gliding anthem).

The selections from U2’s 40-plus-year catalog correlated to a story shared from the book:

• “With Or Without You” was woven into the origin tale of meeting wife Ali (who was present at Sunday’s show) the same week as U2 bandmates Larry Mullen Jr., Adam Clayton and the Edge.

• “Out of Control,” the first song Bono said he wrote after being musically schooled by The Ramones (his saviors after the death of his mother, Iris, when he was 14).

• “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” an Edge creation so defiant on record that Bono turned haunting and hushed.

• “Beautiful Day,” shared after the tender recounting of the last moments with his father, his “Da,” in 2001.

Through them all, Bono’s voice soared with few accoutrements, the elegant stringed instruments and electronic pulse an undercurrent, but not the drivers of these malleable classics.

The production is magical, intimate and unforgettable. And best of all, these shows come with a no-devices-allowed mandate (phones will be stored in Yondr bags on the way in), allowing fans to commit special moments to memory, uninterrupted by filming, texting and views impeded by self-involved boors.

What does Bono talk about in his Surrender shows?

In his black outfit, pinstriped vest and trademark shaded glasses, Bono alternately stalked the stage, sipped from a pint of Guinness, pointed at his sketches illuminated on the screens behind him, and sat in a chair to recount conversations between himself and his father.

The topic of Luciano Pavarotti – a favorite of his Da, a tenor singer with a love of classical music – ran throughout the show. Bono frequently imparted how his father could never understand why a legendary opera singer would want to work with his son (Bono and the Edge performed at the 1995 Pavarotti & Friends concert).

Bono can captivate with a soliloquy about air (the story of the heart defect that almost killed him in 2016), prompt easy laughter with the recollection of his Da – no fan of the royal family – being immediately disarmed when meeting Princess Diana ("800 years of oppression, forgotten about in eight seconds," Bono quipped), and break into amusingly accurate impersonations of his bandmates and former President Bill Clinton (Bono worked with many a politician in philanthropic efforts such as the One Campaign).

Bono is both professor and maestro of this production, handling both roles with skillful ease.

What is next for U2?

It’s already been a visible several months for U2. The band received a Kennedy Center Honor in December, while “Songs of Surrender,” their collection of 40 rerecorded catalog gems arrived in March, as did a Disney+ documentary spotlighting Bono, the Edge, David Letterman and Dublin.

In September, the band will open the MSG Sphere in Las Vegas (sans Mullen Jr., who is sidelined by recovery from surgery) with a high-tech extravaganza dubbed U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at the Sphere (dates will be announced soon).

No doubt, the enduring success of U2 can be attributed to their close-knit democracy and brotherhood. As Bono underscores in his show, “It turns out maybe you can change the world and have fun”– a credo both he and U2 have turned into an art.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bono at the Beacon: U2 singer's New York shows will break your heart