4 / 10
With its main characters speaking and acting past each other, this Anna Christie doesn’t convincingly locate a strong rope-line from 1921 to now. Instead, it feels as unmoored as one of its barges, and overall a little lost in the muffling mists of that old devil sea.
6 / 10
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.
What did critics think of ANNA CHRISTIE, running at Brooklyn's St. Ann's Warehouse, directed by Thomas Kail, and starring Michelle Williams and Tom Sturridge?
St. Ann’s Warehouse has just announced that Tony nominees Tom Sturridge and Brian d’Arcy James have joined the cast of St. Ann’s new production of Eugene O’Neill’s “Anna Christie,” directed by Thomas Kail. We have all of the details here!
| 1921 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1952 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1977 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1993 | Broadway |
Roundabout Revival Broadway |
| 2011 | West End |
Donmar Warehouse Revival West End |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design of a Play | Nevin Steinberg |
| 2026 | Drama League Awards | OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A PLAY | Anna Christie |
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