Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf

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An award-winning writer reveals the behind-the-scenes story of the provocative play, the groundbreaking film it became, and how two iconic stars changed the image of marriage forever. From its debut in 1962, Edward Albees Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf was a wild success and a cultural lightning rod. The play transpires over one long, boozy night, laying bare the lies, compromises, and scalding love that have sustained a middle-aged couple. It scandalized critics but magnetized audiences. Across 644 sold-out Broadway performances, the drama demolished the wall between what could and couldnt be said on the American stage and marked a definitive end to the I Love Lucy 1950s. Then, Hollywood took a colossal gamble on Albees sophisticated playand won. Costarring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, the sensational 1966 film minted first-time director Mike Nichols as industry royalty and won five Oscars. How this scorching play became a movie classicsurviving censorship attempts, its creators inexperience, and its stars own tumultuous marriageis one of the most riveting stories in all of cinema. Now, acclaimed author Philip Gefter tells that story in full for the first time, tracing Woolf from its hushed origins in Greenwich Villages gay enclave, through its tormented production process, to its explosion onto screens across America and a permanent place in the canon of cinematic marriages. This deliciously entertaining book explores how two couplesone fictional, one all too realforced a nation to confront its most deeply held myths about relationships, sex, family, and, against all odds, love.

Reviews

Gefter weaves the particulars of Avedon's life story into a larger narrative about American culture in the decades after World War II . . . Argues eloquently for the abiding, even urgent relevance of Avedon's imperfect Art. * The New York Times Book Review on WHAT BECOMES A LEGEND MOST *
An admiring and absorbing biography. * The New York Times Book Review on WAGSTAFF *

Author Bio

Philip Gefter is the author of What Becomes a Legend Most: The Biography of Richard Avedon; Wagstaff: Before and After Mapplethorpe, which received the 2014 Marfield Prize for arts writing; and an essay collection, Photography After Frank. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker: Photobooth, Aperture, and The New York Times, where he was an editor for over 15 years. He also served as a producer on the award-winning documentary, Bill Cunningham New York.