‘Bono: Stories of Surrender' review: U2 fans will relish this one-man show
Bono's theatrical one man show is 'reimagined' for this film with director Andrew Dominik. Chiefly in black and white, it's a stripped back presentation that risks self indulgence but offers plenty of interest for fans, some of whom are featured in footage from the Beacon Theatre shows.
The original performance was called 'Stories of Surrender: An Evening of Words, Music and Some Mischief'… which gives you a fair idea of the tone: Bono uses personal biographical recollections to introduce songs including 'Desire' and 'Pride (In The Name Of Love)'. The singer is ably accompanied by Jacknife Lee, cellist Kate Ellis, and harpist Gemma Doherty; his U2 bandmates The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. are absent, but their presence is felt. Bono gives lively recounts of forming the band in 1976, offering poetic and gently comical insights into the personalities and key moments, such as the time that Adam and Larry chose to 'hide' from Luciano Pavarotti.
The most poignant elements see Bono recalling his mother, who died when he was 14, and his father, who would begin their weekly pub sessions with the query: 'Anything strange or startling?' Born Paul David Hewson, Bono proves himself a decent mimic as he quotes various people in his life, often referring to his wife, Alison Stewart, though wisely refraining from a full-on impression of her.
The format can feel slightly forced at times, and some viewers may not be able to get past the humble-bragging tone. But this is an essentially human story, reflecting on personal grief as well as themes such as religion, politics and charity. Those who have read the autobiography 'Surrender' may know the stories, but they're retold in a way that invites personal contemplation and nostalgia. If you grew up listening to Bono's voice, you will probably want to hear him out.
Bono: Stories of Surrender is available globally on May 30 on Apple TV+.
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Washington Post
an hour ago
- Washington Post
WorldPride parade to hit the streets of D.C. Saturday
A 1,000-foot rainbow flag, more than 300 crooners and a team of cheerleaders will float, sing and dance their way down 14th Street NW this Saturday to celebrate Pride. The parade will kick off at 2 p.m. at the intersection of 14th and T streets with a ceremony led by Indigenous residents in the D.C. area. Actresses Laverne Cox and Reneé Rapp will act as grand marshals, along with Deacon Maccubbin — an activist who organized D.C.'s first Pride celebration 50 years ago. They will shepherd about 300 groups of floats, vehicles and walkers along the route, said Tiffany Lyn Royster, director of community engagement with Capital Pride Alliance and WorldPride. They'll head south along 14th Street until turning left onto Pennsylvania Avenue and right onto Ninth Street. The parade will go on until around 8 p.m. and will be followed by a concert headlined by the actress Cynthia Erivo at Third Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. 'We may have some special guests in store for folks,' Royster said. 'Definitely keep a look out.' The parade and other festivities will kick off the final two days of WorldPride in D.C., a three-week festival celebrating the LGBTQ community. The festivities also commemorate the city's 50th anniversary of Pride celebrations. Organizers acknowledge that WorldPride this year has not been the massive celebration they originally hoped for — one that was expected to attract up to 3 million people, fill hotels to capacity, and bring revenue to the District and its businesses. The Trump administration's targeting of transgender rights and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts has led to heightened concerns from many in the LGBQT community over their safety. A Shakira concert scheduled for WorldPride's opening festivities last Saturday was canceled because of production issues. And on Friday, many D.C. community members were outraged over a National Park Service order to fence off Dupont Circle Park for Pride weekend. The park, in the heart of D.C.'s historic LGBQT neighborhood, has long been a gathering place for Pride celebrations. Royster said that she thinks Pride takes on more importance this year because of this charged political climate. The parade is still expected to attract up to 700,000 attendees, almost double the number than in a typical year, according to Royster. The parade usually attracts around 300,000 to 400,000 people. 'I think that people are just going to be louder and prouder,' Royster said. 'We have folks who are from all over the world at this point participating in our parade on Saturday, and they came to help us fight and they came to help us be proud.' At the parade, a coalition of singers hailing from Colorado to Maine will serenade spectators as they carry an enormous rainbow flag down the route, said Thea Kano, artistic director for the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington DC. The playlist will include 'Freedom' by Beyoncé and a couple of social justice tunes. For Kano, singing in the parade is all about spreading positivity and sharing it with the broader community. 'When we sing, joy is the number one thing. We come in joy,' Kano said. 'It's resistance. It's resilience. In a sense, it feels that people are trying to take our joy away and, you know, good luck with that.' Parade-goers will also hear the blaring horns and beating drums of D.C.'s Different Drummers Marching Band, an LGBTQ ensemble. One musician, Kirsten Zeiter, will play the trumpet with her rainbow-colored prosthetic left arm. Zeiter said she is looking forward to taking part in the event, 'especially being part of a group like D.C.'s Different Drummers that is all about inclusion, acceptance, pride and representation,' she said. 'Any performance with them I just feel joy.' In addition to the parade, organizers are hosting a block party on 17th Street from noon to 10 p.m. The location in Dupont, the city's original 'Gayborhood,' was chosen because of its connection to historical uprisings among D.C.'s LGBTQ+ community, Royster said. Other events Saturday include a street festival showcasing artisans and multicultural performances, music and dancing at small stages across the grounds and a musical festival headlined by Troye Sivan and featuring Kim Petras, Purple Disco Machine and Raye. The celebration goes on through Sunday with a continuation of the street festival, DJs, drag and drumming at the small stages and a closing concert from Doechii. This weekend, residents should expect much of downtown, Dupont and Logan circles, and the U Street area to be closed to cars at least part of the time. Metro will close at 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday and open at 6 a.m. Saturday and Sunday to accommodate Pride celebrations.
Chicago Tribune
an hour ago
- Chicago Tribune
Threats against drag performers are down as LGBTQ opposition shifts focus to transgender and gender-nonconforming people, report says
The emails were dashed off, with the agitated posts on social media garnering hundreds of likes. Protests were promised. Supporters mobilized. But by the time the drag storytime event for children at the Beverly branch library rolled around Tuesday, the scene looked more like a dance party for families than a volatile clash. Bubbles floated through the air while drag storytime supporters draped in pride flags cheered on families as they entered the library. Dozens of supporters danced to ABBA's 'Dancing Queen,' easily drowning out the handful of people who showed up to protest. 'We are seeing that the right wing are not showing up in the way that they are saying,' said Asher McMaher, executive director of Trans Up Front IL and an organizer of the counterprotest. 'By the time more people started showing up, people were in the library.' The scene was a far cry from 2022, when drag events in Illinois were among the most targeted in the country, harassment so intense it forced the owner of a suburban bakery to close down her business after it was vandalized ahead of a highly anticipated, family-friendly sold-out drag show. Now, three years later, GLAAD, the world's largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, reports that threats against drag performers are down in Illinois. While it's difficult to ascribe it to one cause, the drop may be due to a mix of drag performers working together to ensure the safety of their audiences, and a more prudent approach to which towns and venues are chosen for shows. Whatever the cause, the downturn mirrors a nationwide trend, where GLAAD says coordinated attacks against drag performers and associated events fell by 55 % between May 1, 2024, and May 1, 2025, compared with the year before. But with Pride month in full swing, advocates say the threat against the LGBTQ+ community remains. While attacks on drag performers may have decreased, attacks on transgender and gender-nonconforming people are on the rise, according to GLAAD. Across the country, there were over 932 anti-LGBTQ incidents between May 1, 2024, and May 1 of this year, with 52% of those attacks directed toward transgender and gender-nonconforming people. While the overall number of anti-LGBTQ incidents is down compared with the previous year's data, attacks targeting transgender and gender nonconforming people are up 14% compared with last year. Those include protests, physical assaults and harassment, among other forms of attack. 'Drag has been the entry point for a much bigger agenda,' Channyn Lynne Parker, CEO of Brave Space Alliance, said. 'What starts as targeting drag quickly has become targeting trans people, especially trans women. It's a proxy. So they're not afraid of makeup and wigs. What they're afraid of is gender nonconformity.' Advocates say they've noticed a shift in anti-LGBTQ attacks from drag shows to transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals is taking place in more public forums, including local government and school board meetings. 'Extremists do get bored in targeting certain groups,' said Sarah Moore, senior editor of news and research for GLAAD. 'You can go back to 2020, 2021 where we saw the conversations around critical race theory, Black Lives Matter, transforming into attacks on drag, trans rights, immigrant rights, Islamophobia. There is always this evolving target of who extremists want to target their hate to.' Although Illinois is typically considered a safe haven in the Midwest for trans individuals and the broader LGBTQ community, it is not immune to hate from extremists, advocates said. As transgender and gender-nonconforming people start to become more represented in government and mainstream media, Moore said that visibility is also leading to increased attacks. 'We are living in a time where visibility no longer guarantees safety,' Parker said. 'I'm not sure if it ever guaranteed safety, but the climate for LGBTQ people, particularly trans folks and people of color, has become increasingly hostile.' At Naperville School District 203, some parents are pushing the school board to change its policy over transgender athletes after claims surfaced online that a transgender athlete won a girls junior track meet. The incident prompted Awake Illinois to file a federal Title IX complaint against the district with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. Awake Illinois has previously been listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. In April, Awake Illinois lodged similar allegations against Valley View District 365-U, which inspired passionate pleas in support of LGBTQ+ youth at a school board meeting for the Bolingbrook-Romeoville district. Chicago Public Schools and Deerfield Public Schools District 109 have also been subject to federal complaints over the past few months. 'I have five children and I've attended more school board meetings in the last two, three months, than in their entire lives,' McMaher said. 'And it's because those who follow the Trump administration have become emboldened to plan all these actions or spew all this hate in a way that they haven't previously, because they feel justified under the federal administration.' Lifelong Bolingbrook resident Bob Skrezyna said he's been to plenty of school board meetings in his life, but never imagined he would be advocating for his daughter and trans youth like her at his local school district, which he described as a place that is typically welcoming to people like her. That all changed when Awake Illinois started showing up to meetings at Valley View District 365-U. 'I didn't go looking for a fight,' Skrezyna said. 'It literally came to my kid's school.' He said that Awake Illinois has since left his district alone and has shifted its focus to Naperville, where Skrezyna has also gone on to advocate for trans students. He never thought he would be going to Naperville meetings to continue his advocacy, but he feels a sense of urgency. Others who heard him speak at the District 365-U school board meetings also encouraged him to speak at Naperville. 'They had to wait until (President Donald Trump) came to power to actually make a move on anybody,' Skrezyna said. 'Most of us had been fighting this fight since our kids were tiny. They're in it just right now because they see an opening. When Trump is gone, the hate is still going to be here. My hope is that if I keep speaking and if other parents like me keep speaking and allies keep speaking, we'll once again be able to drown out that hate.' While the anti-LGBTQ spotlight may have shifted to transgender people, advocates and experts say the hate they are seeing is not new. 'We're in uncharted territory, at least in our active memories,' Parker said. 'So many folks before us worked so hard for us to not experience this, but here we are. What we're experiencing right now isn't new, but it is recycled.' Much of the rhetoric in the targeting of trans people is similar to the rhetoric used against drag performers — which is similar to the rhetoric used predominantly against gay men and lesbians in the 1970s, according to University of Chicago professor Andrew Proctor. Proctor pointed to anti-LGBTQ activist singer Anita Bryant as an example of that. Bryant spearheaded the 'Save Our Children' campaign in Florida's Miami-Dade County in 1977, which successfully overturned an ordinance that granted gay people housing and employment opportunities. Her efforts helped spread the false idea that such protections would allow gay people to prey on children. Bryant's support also helped spur the Briggs Initiative, a failed 1978 proposition in California that sought to ban gay men and lesbians from working in schools. 'Schools have always been a sort of site for these battles, if we're just thinking sort of broadly about LGBTQ politics … I view this as sort of a new iteration of old tactics,' Proctor said, emphasizing how the 'groomer' narrative has now largely shifted from one group in the LGBTQ community to another. Proctor also noted that one aspect that's relatively new is that the concern is not just with adults, but also with children who are coming out and identifying themselves as queer. 'Children are coming out, teenagers are coming out in school, and that's part of what parents seem to be especially concerned about or trying to censor, along with access to information about gender and sexuality,' Proctor said. As the summer kicks off with Pride Month underway, McMaher said they expect to see an upswing in attacks toward both drag performers and events designed for transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals. After Tuesday's counterprotests, McMaher said they were notified about several drag storytime events in Chicagoland that were being threatened, including one in Edgewater on Monday. Regardless, McMaher said they still want people to enjoy pride events. 'In the state of Illinois, even though we are a sanctuary state, that doesn't mean bad things can't happen,' McMaher said. 'When you see something or experience something, report it. Illinois' attorney general has a form for reporting hate crimes. Remember that no matter what, we're not going anywhere as a community and we still deserve to celebrate Pride.'
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
'King of Drag's Dr. Wang Newton says the kings' moment is now: 'we're no longer chasing approval'
While Dr. Wang Newton is already one of the most successful and well known drag kings in the biz, he's about to strut his stuff for a brand new audience on a new, massive stage as one of the permanent judges on the upcoming — and highly anticipated — competition series King of Drag. It's a moment that's been a long time coming for the drag community and one that has Wang asking the same question we are: 'Why did it take this long for kings to take center stage?' he poses to PRIDE. 'After 16 years of RuPaul's Drag Race, 20+ global spinoffs, and nine years of Dragula, the real question is: why not yesterday?' It's a hypothetical question but one that's worthy of being answered — even if doing so requires taking a hard look at the queer community and who we choose to uplift. Thankfully, King of Drag looks to be equal parts entertaining and restorative representation. When Wang says it's been a long time coming, he means a long time. 'I joke that kings go way back — from the Tang Dynasty to the Wang Dynasty — because theatrical male impersonation has existed for over 1,300 years. We've always been here. Literally, facts.' While the inequity between representation of kings and queens is unquestionable, Wang sees this moment as a change for the kings to be seen on their own terms. 'No 'pick me,' no victim energy — we're no longer chasing approval from spaces that were never interested in including us,' he says. 'The truth is, [The Boulet Brother's] Dragula led the way with real inclusivity, and now King of Drag follows suit. And man oh man, do we have some snazzy suits!' TeAra DeBerry In the same way that queens generally explore heightened versions of femininity, kings play with the ideas and tropes of masculinity. Politically and culturally, this has the potential to become a hot-button topic, particularly in a time when discussions around masculinity have become so fraught, specifically in right-wing spaces that also tend to look for excuses to turn drag into a wedge issue. Wang, however, hopes audiences see kinging generally and King of Drag specifically as an exploration of masculinity that makes much more space for its expression and celebration. 'Masculinity isn't a monolith — it's a mood board,' he explains. 'Drag kings came with the remix and the beat drop. If traditional masculinity boxed us in, an all-king show is the jailbreak. Flipping the script to liberated masculinity is kinda hot.' Wang has high hopes for the series, and the impact it will have on kings moving forward. 'I hope it cuts the velvet rope and leaves the door swinging open,' he says. 'After 20 years in the game, I want to see something new. No more comparing apples to oranges with drag queens. I want a surge of facial hair absurdity, feral kings, and quiet masterful kings emerging from the woodwork.' We couldn't agree more. But that's not all: like his fellow King of Drag judge Tenderoni, Wang wants to see a positive economic impact for kings as well. 'Just for fun, maybe some actual social impact — like closing the gender wage gap, while performing gender with our gap,' he says with a wink. 'I've been blessed on this journey — but I can't keep all this Wang Privilege to myself!' View this post on Instagram A post shared by 𝗗𝗿. 𝗪𝗮𝗻𝗴 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘁𝗼𝗻 (王扭臀) (@drwangnewton) Speaking of Wang himself, he shares that despite his decades in the biz, this experience caused his personal drag to evolve, too. 'This was my Wang 3.0 glow-up — the Outer Wang got some new polished lewks, but the Inner Wang glow turned up a notch, too.' But most of all, Wang is thrilled the world is going to get to see kings on the kind of platform they deserve. As for what to expect this season, he says to hold on to your mustache! 'Fans may think they've seen it all: Death drops, reveals, rinse, repeat. But kings do their own thing. Expect bold choices, big charm, and a whole new spectrum of sexy!' King of Drag premieres June 22 on Revry. Stay tuned for more updates about the series on PRIDE as they roll out, and watch the teaser trailer below. - YouTube
