The program for the revival of Anna Christie at St. Ann’s Warehouse features a large image of Michelle Williams staring pensively at the camera. It reinforces the notion that this production of Eugene O’Neill’s 1921 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama is meant to be a star vehicle. Unfortunately, Thomas Kail’s uneven production doesn’t present the actress at her best; nor is her performance the standout. But who would go see the play if it were retitled Chris Christopherson?
That character is played by Brian d’Arcy James, outfitted with a copious beard that would make Santa Claus jealous. As Anna’s father who joyously reunites with her after having abandoned her fifteen years earlier when she was only five, the reliably terrific actor delivers a warm, moving performance that gives the show a much-needed emotional depth that is otherwise lacking.
Performed on a thrust stage with the audience seated on three sides, this Anna Christie is nothing if not intimate. But it fails to compensate for the datedness of O’Neill’s melodramatic play which is rarely revived for a reason. That doesn’t mean it’s unproduceable; the 1993 Broadway revival generated such torrid heat that its stars Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson later got married. And a 2011 production at London’s Donmar Warehouse, directed by Rob Ashford, garnered raves for its staging and performances by Ruth Wilson and Jude Law.
[Read Melissa Rose Bernardo’s ★★★☆☆ review here.]
The 45-year-old Williams is arguably too old to play her character, who’s supposed to be only twenty, but that can be forgiven. She looks much younger than her years, and most actresses who assume the part are significantly older than intended (although Garbo was only 24 when she starred in the 1930 film version).
More problematically, Williams doesn’t bring the necessary intensity to the role of a young, hard-edged prostitute who falls in love with Mat Burke (Tom Sturridge), a shipwrecked Irish stoker who literally emerges from the sea. In her opening scene, when she walks into a waterfront saloon and utters the immortal lines “Gimme a whiskey, ginger ale on the side…and don’t be stingy, baby!” she might as well be a teenager ordering an ice cream soda. Although she’s done fine work onstage in Cabaret and Blackbird (she received a Tony Award nomination for the latter), her performance here feels tenuous, lacking the magnetism that would draw us into her character.
Fortunately, d’Arcy James is there to pick up the slack, as is Sturridge, who brings a fierce physicality to his turn as the Irish seaman. And although she’s onstage for only a few minutes, Mare Winningham, another dependable performer, makes a strong impression as Christopherson’s salty drinking companion Marthy.
While it’s obvious that the lead performers have worked hard on their accents, both Swedish and Irish, they might have taken it a little easier. Good portions of the dialogue are unintelligible, making the two and a half hour running time feel much longer.
The production features the sort of silly theatrical flourishes that are more distracting than illuminating. Several of the performers, including some brawny ensemble members, are assembling the wooden set as we take our seats. At one point, movement director Steven Hoggett has Williams leaping with excitement into the arms of a stevedore. Both D’Arcy James and Sturridge are forced to climb wooden pallets and fall backwards into the arms of the other actors, as if performing a trust exercise at a spiritual retreat.
On the plus side, Paul Tazewell’s costumes look authentically grimy, Nicholas Britell’s music provides a suitably tense atmosphere, and the production features enough mood-setting fog to blanket San Francisco. The rear of the stage features hundreds of bottles behind wiring; they were intended to be attached to the wall, but that decision apparently proved disastrous at the first preview when they catastrophically began falling to the floor and smashing into pieces. Some might say it was a bad omen for a production of Anna Christie that doesn’t manage to overcome the curse of “dat ole devil sea.”
Anna Christie opened December 11, 2025, at St. Ann’s Warehouse and runs through February 1, 2026. Tickets and information: stannswarehouse.org
