According to historian Paul Avrich, the character of Anna Christie was based on Christine Ell, an anarchist cook in Greenwich Village, who was the lover of Edward Mylius, a Belgian-born radical living in England who libeled the British king George V.[1] Anna Christie is the story of a former prostitute who falls in love, but runs into difficulty in turning her life around.

Coal-barge captain Old Chris receives a letter from his daughter, a young woman he has not seen since he lived in Sweden with his family and she was five years old.

She tells them the truth about her past: She was raped while living with her mother's relatives on a Minnesota farm, worked briefly as a nurse's aide, then became a prostitute.

O'Neill revised it radically, changing the barge captain's daughter Anna from a pure woman needing to be protected into a prostitute who finds reformation and love from life on the sea.

The new version, now titled Anna Christie, premiered on Broadway at the Vanderbilt Theatre on November 2, 1921, and ran for 177 performances before closing in April 1923.

[2] Alexander Woollcott in The New York Times called it "a singularly engrossing play", and advised "all grown-up playgoers" to see it.

Time magazine wrote, "In London, the first night of Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie, with Pauline Lord in the title role, received a tremendous ovation.

"[4] The play was adapted by Bradley King for a 1923 film of the same name directed by John Griffith Wray and Thomas H. Ince, with stars Blanche Sweet, William Russell, George F. Marion, and Eugenie Besserer.

In 1957, a thoroughly reworked adaptation by George Abbott with music and lyrics by Bob Merrill, called New Girl in Town, opened on Broadway.

Directed by Nancy Rhodes and conducted by Julian Wachner, it featured Melanie Long in the title role, Frank Basile as Chris, Jonathan Estabrooks as Mat, Joe Hermlayn as Marthy and Mike Pirozzi as Larry.