“Clearly a good actress and a skilled writer…True Confessions is well done.”
— Anita Gates | New York Times
“…evocative, fully realized, wickedly funny and painfully honest.”
— Sam Whitehead | Time Out New York
“Morley strips herself, her fellow dancers, and their patrons barer than in any go-go bar.”
— David Sheward | Backstage
“Acute…poignant…leaving us raw and hungry.”
— Thom Garvey | The Village Voice
“Funny…she reveals as much of her soul as she does her skin.”
— Dennis Brabhan | Shout Magazine
“…conspicuously devoid of cliches and manipulative emotion, Morley’s portrayal of her life as a go go dancer was inspirational to the large crowd. Not to just women, not to just men, but to the entire breathless audience, captivated by her story of femininity and power, masculinity and sex.”
– Cedar Carlton | The Washington Square News
True Confessions of a Go-Go Girl
True Confessions is a melange of monologues, characters, music, dance, and images culled from Jill’s metamorphosis from tomboy to top-ranked bikini dancer in the 1990s. Jill likens it to stepping through the looking glass–only her Wonderland consists of seedy go-go bars off the Jersey Turnpike.
Several characters based on real dancers she met make appearances, as well as her gay male roommate, who got her in touch with her femininity, and the bouncer who taught her how to “hump air.” Through it all, Jill wonders how this new trade affects her personal life and examines the rewards and dangers of the go-go business.
True Confessions of a Go-Go Girl was published in Women Playwrights: The Best Plays of 1998 by Smith and Kraus.
If you are interested in a manuscript or producing the play, please email Broadcasting Diplomacy.
The History of
True Confessions of a Go-Go Girl
In 1993, Jill Morley, a struggling actress, dipped her toe into go-go dancing in New Jersey and found it so fascinating she had to write about it. Blue-collar go-go bars filled with colorful characters provided an awakening of sorts. She would sit and write in the dressing rooms, observing the women she worked with, picking up on their mannerisms and empathizing with their stories. After writing and performing her own material for a couple of years, she was brave enough to put “True Confessions of a Go-Go Girl” on its feet.
She self-produced it with the fine folks at the Westbank Café, and the show soon got a “buzz.” Then, Hollywood came calling. Jill appeared on Page Six, A Current Affair, Donahue, and other entertainment shows. She performed it at the HBO Workspace in LA and solo festivals across the country. The film rights were shopped to Jodie Foster, Meg Ryan, Universal, and other studios. But the interest fizzled out after Striptease and Showgirls got made and flopped.
Then, Jill got an offer to do True Confessions of a Go-Go Girl Off-Broadway. This was her dream! She grew up worshipping Lily Tomlin and Whoopi Goldberg and was hoping this would be her big break.
After rehearsing at the Actor’s Playhouse for three weeks, one week before opening night, the producer didn't come up with the money, and they pulled the plug on the whole production. Other attempts to take it Off-Broadway failed, and the play went into theater limbo.
Jill brought the show back a year later with Dan Wackerman and Kevin Kennedy to The Red Room Theater at KGB in the East Village. But eventually the show ran its course, and Jill hung up her heels. It got made into a Lifetime Movie in 2008, written by Lenore Kletter.
October 24th, 2026, the revival of True Confessions of a Go-Go Girl will open Off-Broadway at the Triad Theater for two performances a week through December 5th. It will be directed by Obie Award-winning director Dan Wackerman and assistant directed by writer and former go-go girl Jill Morley.
The Triad is located at 158 West 72nd Street (Broadway)