![\"Michelle](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/251209_AnnaChristie-212-F.jpg\" "\\"Review")
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Michelle Williams in \u201cAnna Christie\u201d at St. Ann\u2019s Warehouse in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
Photo by Julieta Cervantes\/Provided<\/p>\n
With its sailors, barges, and fogbound saloons, \u201cAnna Christie<\/a>\u201d is very much a waterfront play<\/a>, so staging it along the Brooklyn shoreline has its appeal. But St. Ann\u2019s Warehouse\u2019s revival starring Michelle Williams also makes clear why the play itself is so rarely seen.<\/p>\n Even among Eugene O\u2019Neill\u2019s plays, it is one of those titles that looms large in reputation while rarely appearing on New York stages. Overshadowed by O\u2019Neill\u2019s later, weightier masterpieces like \u201cLong Day\u2019s Journey Into Night,\u201d \u201cThe Iceman Cometh,\u201d and \u201cA Moon for the Misbegotten,\u201d \u201cAnna Christie\u201d tends to resurface only when a revival can promise something extra. Directed by Thomas Kail (\u201cHamilton\u201d), the new Off-Broadway production certainly supplies star power and pedigree. Whether it supplies a compelling reason for revisiting the play itself is another matter.<\/p>\n For many theatergoers, \u201cAnna Christie\u201d is known primarily through a handful of famous reference points\u2014most notably the Greta Garbo film adaptation and the 1993 Broadway revival with Natasha Richardson and Liam Neeson\u2014rather than through regular stage exposure.<\/p>\n First staged in 1921 and now in the public domain, \u201cAnna Christie\u201d is a slow-moving four-act melodrama that builds almost entirely toward a single confession scene. In its time, the play\u2019s frank sympathy for a young woman abandoned by her father, driven into prostitution, and later judged by the man who claims to love her must have felt bracing.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill\u2019s moral perspective remains clear\u2014Anna is emotionally honest and resolute, while the men around her are fearful, self-serving, and hypocritical.\n<\/p>\n The confession, which arrives in the third act, remains the play\u2019s dramatic centerpiece and its most effective stretch. The surrounding acts largely serve to position the characters around them. The first act does at least deliver one of O\u2019Neill\u2019s most memorable entrances, as Anna enters a waterfront saloon and demands, \u201cGimme a whisky\u2014ginger ale on the side, and don\u2019t be stingy, baby!\u201d<\/p>\n After that jolt, the play settles into a deliberate rhythm that tests patience over its two-and-a-half-hour running time, including intermission.\u00a0 The production might feel sharper if the text were pared down into a leaner, uninterrupted arc.<\/p>\n Scenic designers Christine Jones and Brett J. Banakis create a flexible environment of wooden platforms and industrial metal supports that shift fluidly between a bar, barge, and ship cabin. A wall of bottles briefly evokes the sea itself, while movement by Steven Hoggett adds a ghostly sense of transition, though these gestures remain more atmospheric than illuminating.<\/p>\n Natasha Katz\u2019s lighting bathes the stage in shadowy tones that evoke fog, fatigue, and emotional wear. An original score by Nicholas Britell provides a low, moody undercurrent. The performances are consistently strong, even when the material resists them. Williams, though clearly older than the 20-year-old Anna, brings focus and emotional transparency to the role. Her Anna is brittle, guarded, and perpetually braced for disappointment\u2014a woman shaped by experience rather than sentimentality. The production plays directly to Williams\u2019 strengths as a performer, even when those strengths can\u2019t compensate for the play\u2019s dramatic inertia.<\/p>\n Brian d\u2019Arcy James gives Chris Christopherson a gentle sadness, avoiding caricature and emphasizing the character\u2019s regret and self-delusion. Mare Winningham brings unexpected warmth to Marthy Owen, softening a role often written as purely coarse.<\/p>\n Tom Sturridge\u2019s Mat Burke is the production\u2019s most overtly physical presence. Played in a raw, almost animalistic vein, Mat\u2019s swagger collapses into moral outrage once Anna\u2019s past is revealed, reinforcing the play\u2019s critique of male hypocrisy. Both Sturridge and d\u2019Arcy James lean heavily into thick accents that occasionally verge on distraction.<\/p>\n The production ultimately feels less like a fresh interrogation of \u201cAnna Christie\u201d than a respectful showcase for Williams\u2014who is married to Kail\u2014and a museum piece. It honors the play\u2019s legacy, but stops short of making a compelling case for its return.<\/p>\n![\"Michelle](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/251209_AnnaChristie-463-F.jpg\" "\\"Review")
Michelle Williams and Tom Sturridge in \u201cAnna Christie\u201d at St. Ann\u2019s WarehousePhoto by Julieta Cervantes\/Provided<\/p>\n
\n![\"Brian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/251209_AnnaChristie-698-F_e141c2.jpg\" "\\"Review")
Brian d\u2019Arcy-James and Tom Sturridge in \u201cAnna Christie\u201d at St. Ann\u2019s Warehouse in Brooklyn.Photo by Julieta Cervantes\/Provided\n<\/p>\n