When the play opened, the frank depictions of various corruptions were considered somewhat shocking. Touching on familiar themes for Williams (including lost youth and aging, loneliness, sex, and pretending to be what one is not), Sweet Bird of Youth was inspired in part by his own life, though not autobiographical. Williams had written at least eight versions of the play. One version was published in Esquire and another, with only two characters (Chance and the Princess), was performed in Miami, Florida, in 1956.