Eugene O’Neill’s poetic masterpiece won him his second Pulitzer Prize. ANNA CHRISTIE is a gripping account of the relationship between an old sailor and the daughter he hasn’t seen in almost twenty years. Their new bond becomes strained when she falls in love with a young man whose seafaring life isn’t what her father wants for her. When Anna reveals to both men the shameful secret she has been harboring, they come to understand the harsh reality of her past and show her compassion, love and forgiveness.
In Thomas Kail’s luminous and mesmerizing revival of Eugene O’Neill’s 1921 drama “Anna Christie,” which opened on Sunday at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, Michelle Williams and Tom Sturridge play the tumultuous lovers. Her lonesome Anna is amused by Mat and happy to let him adore her; his peacocking Mat is a terror yet given to disarming gestures, like fantasizing about their blissful picket-fence future just minutes after they meet (she looking New England chic in an oilskin coat; costumes are by Paul Tazewell).
All the same, to make Anna Christie truly sing, the tortured lovers need animal magnetism: sex appeal, they used to call it. I never saw the 1993 Broadway revival, but to judge by photos, Natasha Richardson and Liam Neeson had the goods. That gorgeous pair met through the Roundabout production, left their partners and got hitched a year later. In Brooklyn, the showmance already happened: Williams and her director, Kail, are married, with children, and live not far from St. Ann’s in DUMBO. I sincerely hope that their next family affair takes place on a more seaworthy vessel.
| 1921 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1952 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1977 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1993 | Broadway |
Roundabout Revival Broadway |
| 2011 | West End |
Donmar Warehouse Revival West End |
| 2025 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
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