Steven Heard Fales' MORMON BOY CONFESSIONS

Outer Critics Circle Award Nominee Steven Heard Fales's Confessions of a Mormon Boy is considered by many to be one of the best autobiographical solo plays of the 21st Century. Now called Mormon Boy Confessions, the landmark one-man show was originally directed (officially) Off-Broadway in 2006 for a four-month run at the SoHo Playhouse by Tony Award Winner Jack Hofsiss (The Elephant Man), was a 2007 Lambda Literary Award Finalist, and received an Oscar Wilde Award Nomination at the Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival in 2008.

Ahead of its time for its post-postmodern sensibility and its afront to respectability politics, the trailblazing one-Mormon play has toured extensively across the country and around the world from Halifax to Houston, London to Los Angeles, Melbourne to Miami, South Africa to Scandinavia, and theater festivals at home and abroad including the Edinburgh Fringe. It has been used to educate and raise money for charity at special events from Lincoln Center to the Phillips Academy to SafeHouse of the Desert. 

Mormon Boy was also pioneering for its brutal honesty and generosity-of-spirit while wrangling with adult themes of spiritual abuse, fatherhood, and recovery from "chemsex" and sex work addiction. It was a precursor to other work involving Mormon themes including Broadway's The Book of Mormon Musical that debuted in 2011—a decade after Fales first broke the "Mormon ice" onstage in New York City. Mormon Boy was also written as a response to Tony Kushner's Angels in America on Broadway a decade before.

Confessions began as a five-minute stand-up routine at Caroline's On Broadway before its 2001 world premiere in Salt Lake City.  It was a breakout hit at the New York International Fringe Festival in 2004 where it received an Overall Excellence Award, among other milestones, honors, and distinctions. And after a long pandemic pause, it will be returning in an updated, all-new production as part of Fales' MormonBoy 2.0.

"From Salt Lake to New York, both cities have come to define the divergent worlds of Steven Fales' one-man hit. Now, read for yourself the stirring and often shocking true story of one man's coming out as a gay Mormon and being excommunicated from the only church he ever knew, to his harrowing ordeal of sex and drugs in a city that almost consumed him." (From the inside cover of the published book, Confessions of a Mormon Boy: Behind the Scenes of the Off-Broadway Hit.)

The official Off-Broadway blurb read: "After excommunication, divorce, prostitution, and drugs, a sixth-generation Utah Mormon reclaims his kids and 'Donny Osmond' smile. An inspiring true story told with humor, song, and The Book of Mormon."

Steven Heard Fales started writing professionally when his "perfect" Mormon world fell apart. Long before social media and reality tv launched Latter-day Saint personalities, podcasters, and storytellers of all kinds, Mr. Fales has the distinction of being the first gay/bisexual Mormon (and excommunicated LDS father) to tell his story in any kind of mainstage/mainstream way. 

Confessions is now Part One in Fales' Mormon Boy Trilogy: Three Solo Plays in Repertory and the subject of the forthcoming book: Mormon Boy Confidential: The Story Behind the Story. He is also in the midst of writing the many volumes in his autobiographical epic, Oxy-Mormon Memoirs.  

For more information go to the "About" section of this website or visit StevenHeardFales.com.

“Fales’ life is the stuff of great theatre."  

—Associated Press

"An uncommonly powerful, gripping, and very moving piece of theatre."

 —Chicago Tribune

"An exceptional achievement to rank beside the best of the solo genre."

—Los Angeles Times 

"Fales is such a perceptive writer. As moving as it is funny."

—New York Daily News

"Compelling confessional theatre. Fales knows how to sell it."

—New York Times

"A quintessentially American once-upon-a-time of sexual identity crisis and selfhood.”

 —Village Voice

"The story couldn't be more timely."

—San Francisco Chronicle

"What a rare and skillful thing is Mormon Boy, Steven Fales’ engrossing, funny, and often quite harrowing tale."

—Chicago Sun-Times

"Honest, moving, whimsical, sobering, tender and cathartic."

—Miami Herald

“An absorbing tale about the universal human search for belonging. Gay or not, Mormon or not, it is something we can all relate to.”

—Salt Lake Tribune

"Smart and uncharacteristically generous. Feels like a sacred gift."

—Boston Globe

"A rare artistic commodity: a stand-up-comedy-infused autobiographical epic containing chapter after chapter of absorbing spiritual and personal crisis, sly cultural commentary and humor.”

—Washington Post 

"The play builds in power until it crests in a warm and satisfying wave that lifts theatergoers to their feet and is generously sprinkled with witty one-liners. As he comes to peace with himself, Fales provides a simple but startling coup de theatre to signal the emergence of the real human and his play shoots skyward in dramatic content and emotional payoff."

—South Florida Sun-Sentinel

“A brave, bold, brightly-shining masterpiece. Unforgettable.”

—Houston Chronicle

“It is the truth-telling that provides the punch and holds the audience in thrall. A talented performer recounts with charm and power a gripping narrative. An emotional, amusing and roller-coaster theatrical ride.”

—Houston Press

"Fales is superb. Heartbreaking. Humorous. A tale about finding redemption in honesty."

—Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Fales is an endearing performer, a masterful storyteller, and one hell of a writer. Throughout the play, his belief in God and his desire to be ‘good’ make him an extremely compelling hero. Evocative detail, humor and moments of spellbinding drama . . . great theatre . . . sexy and harrowing. A play that transcends religion, gender and sexuality."

—San Francisco Examiner 

“The play is alternately funny and sad—and at its best moments, both. A self-examination about accepting responsibility.”

—The Advocate

"It all leads up to a moment of vulnerability so simple and powerful it suggests a kind of grace. All is forgiven with his final breathtaking, self-revelatory gesture. Fales describes his work as ‘ultimately a prayer’, and at that moment, Mormon Boy makes you want to say ‘amen’.”

—San Diego Union-Tribune

“A very funny, poignant and surprising story of self-acceptance and the happiness in finding spiritual connections.”

—Las Vegas Review-Journal

"There are numerous moments of revelation here. Beyond surprising and moving, it was stunning. Steven Fales is a hero.”

—Austin Chronicle

“Fales walks a fine line between satire and truth and ultimately generates a skillful and compelling balance between one-line zingers and life-affirming revelation. It is a testimony to Fales’ skill as a storyteller as well as his ability to find humor in the often painful human condition that holds his audience for 90 uninterrupted minutes.” 

—Richmond Times-Dispatch

“While questioning Mormon doctrine on sexuality, he feels genuine warmth toward the people of the faith. Fales mixes earnest confession, witty commentary and a number of playful sketches of people he has met on his life journey . . . his performance is polished. He is as engaging as the Mormon with a toothy Donny Osmond smile and sparkling eyes as he is as the low-keyed genuine individual he becomes at the play’s end.”

—The Oregonian

International and full-length reviews and press can be found in the "About" section of this website.

Coming Soon

Mr. Fales attended the Idylwild School of Music and the Arts before earning a BFA in musical theater from the Boston Conservatory/Brigham Young University. He holds an MFA in acting from the University of Connecticut/Connecticut Repertory Theatre. Before specializing in solo performance, Mr. Fales was a union actor working at Shakespeare festivals and regional theatres across the country while dabbling in film and television. 

"Elder Fales" served an LDS mission to Atlanta, Georgia and Oporto, Portugal. His father is a Mormon bishop and his step-grandfather is the late, popular LDS General Authority, Hartman Rector, Jr.  He has two children with ex-wife Emily Pearson, daughter of celebrated Mormon poet, Carol Lynn Pearson. 

Today Mr. Fales eschews all labels as he writes of Mormon Americana, the American West, and his eventual conversion to Catholicism. Now based in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas he quips, "I have the soul of a conservative, the education of a liberal, and the experience of a progressive. That makes me fiercely independent in every way!"

Mr. Fales will soon have a Substack blog and podcast called Mormon Boy Confidential. For more information and other credits, please see his full-length bio on this website or go to StevenHeardFales.com. 

"Compelling"—New York Times; "Powerful"—Chicago Tribune; "Epic"—Washington Post; "Exceptional"—Los Angeles Times; "Superb"—Atlanta Journal-Constitution; "Riveting"—Associated Press; "Moving"—New York Daily News; "Hilarious"—Chicago Sun-Times; "Engaging"—New York Post; "A triumph"—Newsday; "Spellbinding"—San Francisco Examiner;  "Absorbing"—Salt Lake Tribune; "Stunning"—Austin Chronicle; "Cathartic"— Miami Herald;  "Polished"—The Oregonian; "Satisfying"—South Florida Sun-Sentinel; "Sexy"—Village Voice; "Attractive"—LA Weekly; "Astonishing"—Boston Globe; "Breathtaking"—San Diego Union-Dispatch; "Unforgettable"—Houston Chronicle; "Gripping"—Houston Press; "Funny"—The Advocate; "Poignant"—Las Vegas Review-Journal; "Life-affirming"—Richmond Times-Dispatch; "Shocking"—Theaterlife.com; 

"Timely"—San Francisco Chronicle; "Winning"—Variety; "Gripping"—Connecticut Post; "Harrowing"—Backstage; "Ingenious"—Boston Phoenix; "Illuminating"—Boston Herald; "Hair-raising"—Metro Boston; "Dazzling"—Chicago Free Press; "Entertaining"—OUT.com; "Lively"—New York Metro; "Vulnerable"—Theatremania.com; "Captivating"—Broadway.com; "Brave"—NYTheatre.com; etc.

"An uncommonly powerful, gripping, and very moving piece of theatre. It’s far, far better than you’d guess. It’s unusually well-written and shaped. Fales is not only an actor, but also a very good one. And, onstage, he is both provocative and intensely empathetic. As with Elaine Stritch, Fales’ life simply went further to the extremes than most. And thus it’s more dramatic. Fales does not do a hatchet job on the Christian Right in general, or on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in particular. On the contrary, he’s unafraid to reveal that his alienation from his initial identity—his spiritual core, still—is what ripped him apart. Along with some truly wrenching scenes involving issues of fatherhood and childhood vulnerability, this palpable sense of spiritual longing is what makes this show so remarkably powerful. Just as he deserves personal happiness, he also merits a professional chance at the big time, in all its glory.”

CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Chris Jones, Critic's Choice 

“Wrenchingly honest, hilariously jubilant and utterly clear-eyed, Steven Fales’ autobiographical testimony is an exceptional achievement to rank beside the best of the solo genre. Fales never reviles himself or the religion he loved, nor does he let either off the hook. His narrative is richly absorbing in its immediacy. The motifs are shrewdly developed, and the climactic revelation is a hair-raising coup. You’d have to go back to Leslie Jordan or Geraldine Hughes and Julia Sweeney, to find such deeply personal material attaining so wide a reach. That accessibility distinguishes Mormon Boy, and it’s a memorable soul-baring session.”

LOS ANGELES TIMES, David M. Nichols, Critic’s Choice

"Mormon Boy has one of the most riveting moments I have ever seen in the theatre. It literally made my jaw drop. Being a recovering Southern Baptist, Steven Fales’s tale of his journey to self-acceptance made me want to jump up in the theatre and holler "Amen!" I have seen Mormon Boy several times and have brought friends who were considering doing one-person shows to show them an example of how multi-layered a solo piece like his can be. Mr. Fales is a master at his craft. His work is timely and of utmost importance in these days of religious-based intolerance."

LESLIE JORDAN, Emmy Award Winner for Will & Grace

"As someone who knew Steven at 18 years old, since our freshman year in college, I was overwhelmed in witnessing my friend's journey. It is no easy thing to live in authenticity, and it takes enormous strength to look in the mirror and be honest with oneself. Mormon Boy transcends it's singularity with universal themes we can all relate to in our individual search for truth and meaning."

JENNIFER SIMARD, Three-time Tony Award Nominee 

Note from Jack Hofsiss.

“What a rare and skillful thing is Mormon Boy, Steven Fales’ engrossing, funny, and often quite harrowing tale. Fales’ tumble from grace and his road to redemption peg him as the male counterpart of the fallen woman . . . think Joan Crawford or Bette Davis playing outcasts at their most glamorously vulnerable. He’s a male Mildred Pierce, except that it’s real life. With crackerjack direction by Broadway veteran Jack Hofsiss, Fales delivers the dramatic goods with considerable economy, crisp pacing and, in the end, a simple gesture of self-revelation that’s as effective a coup de theatre as you’ll find in a dozen shows jam-packed with special effects. Best of all, we don’t see Fales’ ultimate moment of catharsis coming; it hits us between the eyes like a shot with a two-by-four. Fales is such a good mimic, capable of vivid and hilarious impersonations. Fales has lived a stunningly eventful, almost Dickensian life, and he is, by happy coincidence, a fine writer and actor. Let him make the most of it.” 

—Kevin Nance, Chicago Sun-Times

“Go! Fales is an attractive and engaging personality who wins us over with charm instead of ingratiating gestures. He’s boyish without appearing naïve, mischievous without being cynical. In his opening moments, you never know which way Fales is going to go with his story.  Not only is the material deeply personal, but so is the performance."

—Steven Mikulan, LA Weekly

"Fales is such a perceptive writer. An enormously appealing performer, his struggle to make his life cohere is as moving as it is funny." 

—Howard Kissel, New York Daily News

"Fales retains an astonishing generosity of spirit. He bares his soul. And, even if that soul is one that his church has condemned, it still feels like a sacred gift.”

—Louise Kennedy, Boston Globe

“A keen sense of the ridiculous—displayed in telling narrative details, some droll characterizations, and a wealth of verbal zingers—leavens his powerful Mormon Boy. A rare artistic commodity: a stand-up-comedy-infused autobiographical epic containing chapter after chapter of absorbing spiritual and personal crisis, sly cultural commentary, and humor.”

—Celia Wren, Washington Post

“Fales is taking audiences with him on a pendulum swing, from uncomfortable piety to uncontrolled sensuality, and finally to the stillness and peace of finding his authentic self. Honest, moving, whimsical, sobering, tender, and cathartic."

—Christine Dolen, Miami Herald  

“Mormon Boy is a riveting night of theater. Grounded in the specifics of his own colorful life, it transcends personal revelation by inviting the audience to consider larger issues—the costs of authenticity in a rigid and stratified world. He is a playwright whose work displays great moral courage and daring.”

—Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way

"Mr. Fales is a master at his craft. His work is timely and of utmost importance in these days of religious-based intolerance."

—Leslie Jordan, Emmy Award Winner 

"The best coming-of-age, grappling-with-being piece I've seen since Dan Butler's, and you know there have been a thousand of them ever since his. It's really good. This needs to be filmed."

—Bruce Vilanch, Six-time Emmy Award Winner

“Steven’s one-man show is a combination of an incredibly emotional and heart-wrenching story, a powerfully written and nuanced script, and a knock-it-out-of-the-ballpark performance. Confronting the ‘demons’ within, and seemingly around him, and ending up such an inspiring example of true self-respect and authenticity left me deeply touched and equally inspired.”

—Judith Light, Two-time Tony Award Winner

"When one can be so moved as to laugh till your jaw hurts, wince with a sorry recognition at the pain distorted religion can inflict, cheer with unashamed abandon at an enviable and inspiring bravery so rarely expressed in the face of certain banishment and ridicule, you know you have had a thrilling and emotionally fulfilling theatrical experience. Bravo, Steven Fales and his Mormon Boy!"

—Lucie Arnaz, Tony Award Nominee

"As someone who knew Steven at 18 years old, since our freshman year in college, I was overwhelmed in witnessing my friend's journey. It is no easy thing to live in authenticity and it takes enormous strength to look in the mirror and be honest with oneself. Mormon Boy transcends it's singularity with universal themes we can all relate to in our individual search for truth and meaning."

—Jennifer Simard, Two-time Tony Award Nominee 

"I'm still in awe of this beautiful poem of self revelation. It's like an enormous bell: in time the initial ring may sink below our hearing range but the vibrations keep spreading outward like eddies in a lake. Mormon Boy stays with you."

—Marty Martin, playwright Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein

"Mormon Boy has the 'wow' factor. It's deeply dramatic and involving, and the material covers so much territory."

—Stephen M. Silverman, American biographer, journalist, and editor.

Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination

New York Artie Award

Overall Excellence Award, FringeNYC

Lambda Literary Award Finalist

Oscar Wilde Award Nomination, Outstanding New Writing for the Theatre

Among others.

SoHo Playhouse, Off-Broadway

Mitzi Newhouse Theatre, Lincoln Center

Charing Cross Theatre, London

Coast Playhouse, Los Angeles

Bay Street Theater

Coconut Grove Playhouse

Boston Theatreworks

Connecticut Repertory Theatre

Houston TheatreLab

Diversionary Theatre, San Diego

Among others.

National Arts Festival, South Africa

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

New York International Fringe Festival

Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival

Sydney Mardis Gras Festival

Atlantic Fringe Festival, Halifax

Midsumma Festival, Melbourne

Among others.

Originally directed by Tony Award Winner Jack Hofsiss (The Elephant Man).

Began as a five-minute standup routine at Caroline's On Broadway and then a formal staged reading at the Sunstone Symposium in Salt Lake City.

The world premiere was in Salt Lake Ctiy and became a sold-out sensation.