Cocktails With George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

From its debut in 1962, the play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was a wild success and cultural lightning rod — shocking critics, enthralling audiences, and shattering the boundaries of what could be said on the American stage.

Over 644 sold-out Broadway performances later, Hollywood made a bold gamble turning the play into a film. In Cocktails with George and Martha, Philip Gefter delivers the definitive behind-the-scenes story of how that transformation happened — from Greenwich Village origins to the play’s tumultuous production, to the cinematic version starring iconic actors, surviving censorship, studio pressure, and the personal dramas behind the scenes.

"Smart and entertaining . . . Gefter shows why Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? hit the ’60s like a torpedo." – NPR, Fresh Air

"Delicious." – The New York Times Book Review

"A lively, well-researched book that displays great affection for the film and the highly gifted and vastly troublesome people who made it." – The Washington Post