Bruno Giraldi: Love or Death? at Don’t Tell Mama

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Review by Jack Quinn, Publisher

Bruno Giraldi opened Love or Death? at Don’t Tell Mama with a staging choice that was both simple and unmistakable. He began the evening beneath a thick blanket while music director John Bowen played a lengthy overture. The reveal arrived on cue. Giraldi sat up in silk pajamas, shook off the cover, and moved directly into Queen’s “Somebody to Love.” The transition positioned the show immediately: a performer waking into the subject he intends to interrogate.

The framework leaned heavily on philosophy. Giraldi moved through brief explanations of Plato, Freud, Nietzsche, Derrida, Unamuno, Cioran, Marx, Borges, Comte-Sponville, and Heidegger, using each thinker to introduce a personal disclosure. These sections varied in tone—some concise, some denser—but the structure remained consistent. A philosophical idea arrived. A confession followed. A song answered the confession with its own emotional premise. Bowen’s accompaniment kept the pacing secure throughout these shifts.

Staging remained active. Giraldi used the full room, moving between floor, piano, and center stage. “Bring on the Men”—adjusted to “Bring on the Friends”—included tight chair choreography. “Dulcinea” pushed the vocal line. “Trouble” added darker edge. “Cabaret,” sung in Spanish, shifted the show’s temperature briefly. The performance mixed physicality with intellectual framing without losing its internal logic.

Then the evening changed register. Once the philosophical scaffolding was established, the storytelling turned increasingly human. Giraldi began tracing the line between longing and damage, between the desire to love fully and the fear of repeating old wounds. The transitions sharpened. The confessions deepened. Each idea carried a matching song, and the room leaned toward him in a different way.

From here, the show found its strongest territory. “Tears in Heaven” rose out of a story of loss with unforced gravity. “The Rose” arrived after a reflection on romantic idealization. Even the more theatrical moments—“My Heart Will Go On” in its up-tempo, doo-wop treatment—held thematic weight. The evening suggested a larger idea: love does not avoid pain; love walks straight through it. It was stated without drama yet carried clear resonance.

By the close, Love or Death? had shaped a quiet assertion: love is risk, love is consequence, love is the memory we carry even when the story changes shape. Giraldi allowed philosophy to meet autobiography without forcing resolution. In a small room, the effect was direct and unmistakably alive. One line lingered above the rest: “To speak of love is to step into the dark—and sing anyway.” If the show seeks a single defining statement, it may be that one.

Bruno Giraldi: Love or Death? (November 22, 2025)

Don’t Tell Mama, 343 W. 46^th Street on Manhattan

For tickets, visit http://www.dontellmamaynyc.com

Running time: 65 minutes without an intermission