In 1976, he received his BFA in Directing and Playwriting at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, after which he briefly studied acting with Edward Kaye-Martin in New York.
[4] Falls’ Off-Broadway productions include The Iceman Cometh, starring Nathan Lane and Brian Dennehy, for the Brooklyn Academy of Music; Beth Henley’s The Jacksonian; Rebecca Gilman’s Swing State and Blue Surge; Nicky Silver’s The Food Chain; Eric Bogosian’s subUrbia at Lincoln Center Theater (Obie Award); and David Cale’s We’re Only Alive for a Short Amount of Time and the Public Theater.
Falls made his operatic debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago with his 1993 production of Carlyle Floyd’s Susannah, starring Renee Fleming and Samuel Ramey.
His productions of Eugene O'Neill plays, in partnership with the late Brian Dennehy, his longtime collaborator, were presented on Broadway, as well as at the Stratford Festival and at Dublin's Abbey Theatre.
Productions include Galileo (1986); The Iceman Cometh (1990 and 2012, with Nathan Lane); A Touch of the Poet (1996); Death of A Salesman (1999); Long Day’s Journey into Night (2001); Hughie (2004); and Desire Under the Elms (2009).
Falls’s previous Goodman productions include, most notably, the Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey for which Falls wrote a new book; the American premiere of Alan Ayckbourn’s House and Garden; the world premiere of Richard Nelson’s Frank’s Home; Rebecca Gilman’s Swing State, Luna Gale, and Dollhouse; Adam Rapp’s The Sound Inside; King Lear; Measure for Measure; The Tempest; The Winter’s Tale; The Misanthrope; Landscape of the Body; Three Sisters; Uncle Vanya; Pamplona; Eric Bogosian’s Griller; Steve Tesich’s The Speed of Darkness and On the Open Road; John Logan’s Riverview: A Melodrama with Music; the world premiere of Arthur Miller’s final play Finishing the Picture; David Cale’s We’re Only Alive for a Short Amount of Time; his own adaptation of The Seagull; his own adaptation of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People; the world premiere of Chilean novelist Roberto Bolaño’s epic work 2666, which Falls co-adapted and co-directed with Seth Bockley; and his own adaptation of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.
[8] Falls stepped down as Goodman Theatre Artistic Director at the end of the 2022-23 season, which culminated with his award-winning production of Anton Chekov's A Cherry Orchard.