B'way Update: Left on Tenth, Boop!, CSC, Etc.

Juliana Margulies and
Peter Gallagher will star in
Left on Tenth.
Credit: Mary Ellen Matthews

Left on Tenth, Delia Ephron's new play based on her best-selling memoir, has announced dates, a theater and additional casting. The comedy-drama begins previews on Sept. 26 at the James Earl Jones Theater prior to an Oct. 23 opening. Joining previously announced Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher will be Obie winner Peter Francis James (Funny Girl, Hillary and Clinton) and Kate MacCluggage (The 39 Steps). Five-time Tony winner Susan Stroman (The Producers, Contact) will direct.

“Working on Left on Tenth has been a thrilling journey, collaborating with the incomparable Delia Ephron and bringing her story to life with the extraordinary talents of Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher,” said Stroman. “It's an experience that seamlessly blends the magic of her storytelling with the brilliance of these actors.”

Left on Tenth is a romantic comedy about second chances in life and love. When she least expects it, Delia, beloved novelist and screenwriter of You’ve Got Mail, makes a surprising connection with a man from her past and falls into her own romantic comedy. What starts with an unlikely spark blossoms into a love story that seems to defy all odds in the face of life’s challenges. Left on Tenth celebrates the messy, beautiful true story of two people with the courage to open their hearts again.

Jasmine Amy Rogers in Boop!
The Betty Boop Musical in Chicago
Credit: Matthew Murphy/Evan Zimmerman

Boop!: Boop! The Betty Boop Musical will open on Broadway in April 2025 at a Shubert theater TBA after a hit run in Chicago last year. Based on the Max Fleischer cartoon character of the 1930s, Boop! features a book by Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone), music by David Foster, lyrics by Susan Birkenhead (Jelly's Last Jam), and direction and choreography by Tony winner Jerry Mitchell (Kinky Boots).

CSC Season: CSC has announced its season for 2024-25. First up is Our Class, Tadeusz Slobodzianek's drama of ten classmates--five Catholic and five Jewish--over several tumultous decades, seen last season at BAM presented by Arlekin Players Theater (Sept. 12-Nov. 3). Arlekin Players continue with a revival of The Merchant of Venice, starring Drama Desk winner Richard Topol as Shylock (Nov. 22-Dec. 22). Igor Golyak directs both.

In the spring, CSC presents a revival of Alice Childress' Wine in the Wilderness, originally scheduled for spring 2024. Tony winning actress La Chanze makes her directorial debut of this 1969 work about a Harlem artist and the woman who inspires him (March-April).

In May-June 2025, CSC will co-present with NAATCO and Transport Group, a revival of William Inge's 1955 Bus Stop about a group of strangers stranded in a Midwestern diner during a snowstorm, with an all-Asian cast. The 1955 production starred Kim Stanley and Elaine Stritch. Marilyn Monroe and Don Murray headlined the 1956 film version. The last Broadway revival was in 1996 and starred Billy Crudup and Mary-Louise Parker.

Book Review: The Bluest Eye

(Taken out of the Jackson Heights Library): Nobel laureate Toni Morrison's first novel is a searing, unflinching portrait of a young African-American girl in 1940s Ohio, full of self-loathing and wishing for blonde hair and blue eyes to make her fit in. The theme of black self-deprecation permeates the story as each character turns their anger at racism in on themselves or on the ones they love. White people are too invulernable to hate. Racism poisons the characters' psyches and causes them to turn to violence and hatred. Pecola (ironically named for the mulatto daughter in the soapy film Imitation of Life) is victimized by her father, her mother and her friends. Morrison paints a realistic and rank portrait of a racist society. It probably scares some people, but it's the truth and should be faced. Images of Shirley Temple and Dick and Jane are used to indicate the white ideal against which the characters measure themselves. The chapters on Pecola's parents, Cholly and Pauline, are devastating.  

Book Review: Eleanor in the Village: Eleanor Roosevelt's Search for Freedom and Identity in New York's Greenwich Village

(Bought at the Strand Bookstore's stand at Central Park and Fifth Ave. for $10) Jan Jarboe Russell's brief (around 200 pages) study of Mrs. Roosevelt and her time in Greenwich Village reveals some new details and information, but it's so short that it doesn't go very deep into her life behind the scenes as a political wife. Russell gets most of her details from other books and only includes a few interviews with descendants of participants. We get Eleanor and Franklin's bios in a nutshell, as well as the bargain they struck when she found out about his affair with Eleanor's social secretary. They stayed together for the sake of the kids and his political career--that and his mom said she'd cut him off without a penny if he divorced Eleanor. The couple agreed to live their own lives but to work as a political team. Eleanor rented an apartment on 11th Street in the Village and worked with progressive women--mostly lesbians---on her favorite causes. We don't learn much about her day-to-day existence. How did she balance duties in Albany, Hyde Park, and DC with motherhood and being FDR's hostess? What was life like in the Village at this time? Who lived there other than the few famous names mentioned? Doris Kearns Goodwin's No Ordinary Time offers a more detailed account of a typical day for both husband and wife in her first 100 pages. 

B'way Update: Second Stage Season

Leslye Headland

Second Stage has announced its fall and winter openings for the 2024-25 Broadway and Off-Broadway season. Cult of Love by Emmy nominee Leslye Headland will premiere at Second Stage's Broadway Theatre the Hayes with previews commencing on Nov. 20 and opening Dec. 12. Off-Broadway, Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Marguiles' Lunar Eclipse will play the Kiser Theater starting previews Oct. 9 and an opening set for Oct. 30.

“I’m excited and proud to be working with these incredible artists next season,” said Interim Artistic Director Bennett Leak.  “I have had the opportunity to collaborate with several of them at Second Stage and I look forward to joining forces once again. We will welcome audiences back for Season 46, where they can expect another year of innovative artists and bold plays by living American writers.” 

Cult of Love focuses on the Dahl Family and their calamitous holiday season. The four adult children return to their childhood home with partners in tow. The Dahl traditions include singing carols in harmony at the drop of a hat, but the gathering is anything but harmonious. Old conflicts resurface, new issues battled, and dinner is taking absolutely forever to be served. 

Leslye Heartland returns to Second Stage which produced her play, Bachelorette, in its Uptown Series, and her play, The Layover, off-Broadway at the Kiser Theater. She recently completed “Star Wars: The Acolyte” for the Disney+ streaming platform. She served as writer, director, executive producer, and showrunner. Headland served as writer, producing director and showrunner for Netflix’s acclaimed series “Russian Doll.” The series was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards. Drama League nominee Trip Cullman (I Can Get It For You Wholesale) directs.

B'way Update: Swept Away Dates, MTC Season

Swept Away will play the Longacre.
Credit: Julieta Cervantes

After the Tonys, there is still lots of Broadway news to report: Swept Away and Eureka Day now have dates for upcoming runs and the latter announces its casting. Manhattan Theater Club has announced three world premiere productions for its Off-Broadway 2024-25 season, one of which will be co-production with Signature Theatre. 

Swept Away, the musical following four survivors of an 1888 shipwreck, will begin previews at the Longacre Theater on Oct. 29 and open on Nov. 19. The musical features a book by John Logan (Red, Moulin Rouge! The Musical), direction by Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening, American Idiot) and choreography by Tony Award nominee David Neumann (Hadestown). Previous stagings have been seen at Arena Stage and Berekely Rep.

Zoe Chao will star in
Eureka Day.

Eureka Day, Jonathan Spector's comedy about the havoc wrecked by vaccination requirements at a California elementary school, will begin previews on Nov. 25 and open on Dec. 16 at Manhattan Theater Club's Broadway berth, the Samuel J. Friedman. The cast will include Zoe Chao (Peacock's If You Were the Last), Tony nominee Amber Gray (Hadestown), Tony nominee Jessica Hecht (Summer 1976, The Assembled Parties), Tony winner Bill Irwin (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), and Emmy nominee Thomas Middleditch (Silicon Valley). This Broadway premiere MTC engagement will be directed by Tony winner Anna D. Shapiro (August: Osage County) following a London production. Eureka Day previously played Off-Broadway in 2019.

Book Review: Kafka on the Shore

(Taken out of the Jackson Heights Public Library) I have to be in the right mood for a Haruki Murakami novel. His short stories are easier to take. The novels are full of symbols, magic realism, nightmares and bizarre plot twists that make no sense unless you wrack your brain to figure them out. But the characters are so real and their plights so relatable that one is drawn into his mystical dreamscapes. This one at about 360 pages was intoxicating and not as much of a chore as the much-longer Wind-Up Bird Chronicles. (Same day I will try the 900-page IQ84.) The novel follows the seemingly separate but later interconnected stories of Kafka, a 15-year-old runaway who may or may not have killed his father, and Nakata, a 60-ish mentally-challenged man who can talk to cats. Their chapters alternate until their stories overlap and complete each other. In addition to talking cats, we have fish and leeches falling from the sky like rain, Johnny Walker and Colonel Sanders coming to life, stones with personality, enigmatic characters and relationships. Murakami not only echoes Kafka, but also Greek tragedy and The Sound of Music. It's a weird experience, mainly about coming of age, finding your identity and coming to terms with your past, but all in indirect and metaphorical ways. Strangely absorbing.

B'way Update: The Last Five Years

Adrienne Warren and Nick Jonas
will star in The Last Five Years
on Broadway.

Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years will have its Broadway premiere in a new production starring Tony winner Adrienne Warren (Tina: The Tina Turner Musical) and Nick Jonas (The Jonas Brothers, How to Succeed) directed by Tony and Drama Desk nominee Whitney White (Jaja's African Hair Braiding, On Sugarland), set to open in spring 2025. The two-character musical premiered at the Northlight Theater in Skokie, Illinois. It opened Off-Broadway at the Minetta Lane Theater in 2002 with Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Rene Scott, winning Drama Desk Awards for Brown's Music and Lyrics. A 2013 revival at Second Stage starred Adam Kantor and Betsy Wolfe. The 2014 film version directed by Richard LaGravenese was headlined by Jeremy Jordan and Anna Kendrick.

The plot follows the five-year relationship between author Jamie Wellerstein and actress Cathy Hiatt. The unique structure follows Jamie's story moving forward chronologically and Cathy's moving backwards. The two did not directly interact except for the wedding scene when the meet in the middle of each other's story. 

The musical is based on Brown's real-life marriage to Theresa O'Neill who sued her ex-husband for violating a non-disclosure agreement in their divorce proceeding. Brown countersued O'Neill for interfering in his creative process. In the settlement, Brown altered certain parts of the script to lessen Cathy's resemblance to O'Neill.

B'way Update: Idina Mezel in Redwood

Idina Menzel in Redwood
Credit: Rich Soublet

Tony winner Idina Mezel will return to Broadway in Redwood, a new musical she co-conceived. The original musical which premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse this past February is slated to open sometime in 2025. Written and directed by Tony Award nominee Tina Landau, with music by Kate Diaz, and lyrics by Landau and Diaz, Redwood is conceived by Landau and Menzel, with additional contributions by Menzel. Landau will also be directing the Broadway premiere of Floyd Collins, set to open next April at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater.

“I’m so thrilled to be returning to Broadway, and the fact that I get to do it with Redwood, a musical that means so much to me, makes it even more special,” Menzel said. “This show has lived in my bones for fifteen years, from the very first time Tina and I discussed working together. Finally getting to do it on Broadway is really a dream come true.” After her Tony-winning performance in Wicked, Menzel's last Broadway show was If/Then in 2014.

Redwood is a transportive new musical about one woman’s journey into the precious and precarious world of the redwood forest. Jesse (Menzel) is a successful businesswoman, mother and wife who seems to have it all, but inside, her heart is broken. Finding herself at a turning point, Jesse leaves everyone and everything behind, gets in her car and drives… Thousands of miles later, she hits the majestic forests of Northern California, where a chance meeting and a leap of faith change her life forever. With its deeply personal story, refreshingly contemporary sound, and awe-inspiring design, Redwood explores the lengths –and heights– one travels to find strength, resilience and healing.

Menzel will launch a career-spanning North American tour this summer, which will give fans an opportunity to hear a few songs from Redwood ahead of the show’s Broadway premiere. 

2024 Drama Desk Awards

Stereophonic, winner of 7 Drama
Desk Awards.
Credit: Chelcie Perry

Stereophonic, Water for Elephants and Dead Outlaw won the top honors at the 68th Drama Desk Awards, presented June 10 at NYU's Skirball Center. Stereophonic won the most accolades with seven including Outstanding Play. Water took the most musical prizes with four including Jessica Stone's direction. Dead Outlaw won Outstanding Musical, Lyrics, and Book. Outlaw is only the fifth Off-Broadway musical to take the DD's top prize (previous OB winners were Little Shop of Horrors, Hamilton, A Strange Loop, and Kimberly Akimbo). Unlike the Broadway-only Tonys, the Deskies consider Broadway and Off-Broadway in all of its multiple categories. There are whisperings that with all the prizes it has won (Outer Critics Circle and NY Drama Critics Circle), Dead Outlaw is planning a Broadway transfer.

Sutton Foster and Aaron Tveit
hosting the DD Awards

Tony winners Sutton Foster and Aaron Tveit who just completed a run co-starring in Sweeney Todd hosted the event. The ceremony opened with a funny specialty number reviewing the highlights of the past season working in a desk into the lyrics. (For Drama Desk, get it?) Andrew Rannells, Josh Breckinridge, Taylor Marie Daniel, Raymond J. Lee and Lindsay Joans joined Foster and Tveit in the opening. The ceremony was long at three hours, but never felt tedious thanks to smooth direction by Lorin Latarro and a witty script by Steve Rosen and David Rossmer. Executive producers Staci Levine and Jessica R. Jensen delivered a proficient event. At the midway point, Foster and Tveit announced the audience was in need of a sugar rush and threw Halloween-size candy packages to them (I copped a Peanut M&Ms.) Brenda Braxton supplied voice-overs, reading all of the nominees whose photos were displayed on a giant screen (Ido Levran is credited with video design). Braxton also had a funny segment announcing parody awards such as Outstanding Bathroom in a Broadway Theater (the winner was the renovated James Earl Jones Theater) and Outstanding Performance in a Made-Up Production (disgraced ex-Congressman George Santos in Starlight Express.)

The winners of the acting categories were almost all women. Last year, the Drama Desk joined the Lortel and Outer Critics Circle Awards by eliminating gender in all acting divisions due to the increasing number of non-binary performers. Except for the Solo Performance award, two winners are chosen in the acting slot with more than two winners possible in the case of ties. Only two males won--Patrick Page for his solo show All the Devils Are Here and Brian d'Arcy James of Days of Wine and Rose, co-winning Leading Performance in a Musical with his co-star Kelli O'Hara and Maleah Joi Moon of Hell's Kitchen. 

Presenters included newly-elected Equity president Brooke Shields, Laura Benanti, Matthew Broderick, Andrew Rannells, Debra Messing, Brian d’Arcy James, Montego Glover, Lena Hall, Ruthie Ann Miles, Seth Rudetsky, Shoshana Bean, James Lapine, Corbin Bleu, Sarah Hyland, Miriam Silverman, Steven Pasquale, James Monroe Inglehart, DD winner Kecia Lewis, and (via audio) Carol Burnett. There were several musical numbers. Nikki M. James performed "Wait My Turn" from Suffs. Kelli O'Hara delivered an impassioned performance of "This Nearly Was Mine" from South Pacific in tribute to William Wolf Award winner Andre Bishop, artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater. Santino Fontana introduced the Harold Prince Award for Lifetime Achievement by singing a clever medley of phrases from the many shows Prince directed and/or produced. Matthew Broderick then introduced the recipient, his Lion King voice-over, Producers and Odd Couple co-star Nathan Lane who quipped, "This is the third Lifetime Achievement Award I've received recently. I'm beginning to think there's something my doctors aren't telling me... How did I suddenly get to be Angela Lansbury? Next after Lifetime Achievement, you wind up in the In Memorial segment. It's the Show-Biz Circle of Life." 

Kara Young (Featured Performance in a Play 
for Purlie Victorious) and
Irene Gandy (Special Award for 
Career Achievement)

2024 Tony Award Predictions

The Tony Awards will be held on June 16. The Drama Desks were just held last night. Here are my predictions for the Tonys in all categories. The revival of Merrily We Roll Along was ineligible for the DDs because it was in competition last season for its Off-Broadway run at New York Theater Workshop. (The DDs include Off-B'way and B'way together in all of its categories.) Merrily will probably sweep most of its categories and Stereophonic will dominate the straight play division.

Play: 
Prediction and Preference: Stereophonic

Musical:

Prediction: Hell's Kitchen

Preference: Suffs

Book of a Musical:

Prediction and Preference: Shaina Taub, Suffs

Original Score:

Prediction and Preference: Shaina Taub, Suffs

Revival of a Play:

Prediction and Preference: Appropriate

Revival of a Musical:

Prediction and Preference: Merrily We Roll Along

B'way Update: Lincoln Center Season

Christopher Innvar, Jason Danieley, and
Theresa McCarthy in the 1996
production of Floyd Collins at
Playwrights Horizons
Credit: Joan Marcus

Lincoln Center Theater has announced its 2024-25 season for its Vivian Beaumont, Mitzi Newhouse and Clara Tow Theaters. LCT's Broadway season at the Vivian Beaumont begins with the previously announced MCNEAL by Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar and starring Robert Downey Jr. in his Broadway debut. (previews Sept. 5 and opens Sept. 30). 

The Broadway premiere of Floyd Collins follows with an opening of April 21 and previews beginning March 27. The musical about the real-life story of the titular cave explorer had its world premiere at the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia in 1994. It was followed by the off-Broadway debut at Playwrights Horizons in 1996 where it won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical. Music and lyrics are by Adam Guettel whose Light in the Piazza also played the Beaumont. Tina Landau provides the book, additional lyrics and direction, as she did for the PH production. 

Floyd Collins is based on the true story of a cave explorer in Kentucky, 1925. While chasing a dream of fame and fortune by turning Sand Cave into a tourist attraction, Floyd Collins himself becomes the attraction when he gets trapped 200 feet underground. Alone but for sporadic contact with the outside world, including his brother Homer, Floyd fights for his sanity – and, ultimately, his life – as the rescue effort above explodes into the first genuine media circus. Reporters and gawkers from across the country descend on the property, fueling the hysteria and manipulating the nation into holding its collective breath.

B'way Update: Dolly Parton Musical

Dolly Parton
Credit: Jim Wright

Country superstar Dolly Parton will follow fellow pop music divas Cher, Tina Turner, Gloria Estefan and Donna Summer with a musical based on her life and career. Hello, I'm Dolly (not to be confused with Hello, Dolly) will feature new songs by Parton along with her hits and a book co-written by Parton and Maria S. Schlatter, who worked with the singer on TV projects like the Emmy Award-winning Christmas on the Square. The production is slated for Broadway with a target of 2026. Parton made the announcement at the CMA Fest in Nashville. The title is taken from Parton's first solo album released in 1967. Parton's career trajectory resembles that of Cher and Tina Turner--all three began their singing paths under the wing of a domineering male--Cher with Sony Bono, Tina with Ike Turner, and Dolly with Porter Waggoner. Eventually, they all emerged with vibrant solo careers and established themselves as bigger stars than their former mentors.

In a statement, Parton said, “Hello, I’m Dolly, and I lived my whole life to see this show on stage. I’ve written many original songs for the show and included all your favorites in it as well. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll clap, you’ll stomp, it truly is a Grand Ol’ Opera. Pun and fun intended. Don’t miss it!”

Award News: DD Presenters and Tony Pre-Show

Aaron Tviet and Sutton Foster
will host the 2024 Drama Desk Awards 
on June 10.
Drawing by Justin "Squiggles" Robertson

The 68th Drama Desk Awards, held on Mon. June 10 at 6:15 pm at NYU's Skirball Hall and hosted by Sutton Foster and Aaron Tveit of Sweeney Todd, have announced presenters: BROOKE SHIELDS, LAURA BENANTI, MATTHEW BRODERICK ANDREW RANNELLS, NIKKI M. JAMES, DEBRA MESSING, BRIAN D'ARCY JAMES, MONTEGO GLOVER, LENA HALL, and RUTHIE ANN MILES. Kelli O'Hara (nominated for Days of Wine and Roses) will perform a musical tribute to William Wolf Award recipient Andre Bishop. Nathan Lane will receive the Harold S. Prince Award for Lifetime Achievement. Lane has previously won six Drama Desk Awards, three Tonys, six Outer Critics Circle Awards, the Drama League Award, a Lortel and two Obies. 

There are balcony seats available for the general public and may be purchased at https://tickets.nyu.edu/dramadesk2024/15422

To purchase prime VIP orchestra seats please click HERE.

Julianne Hough and Utkarsh Ambudkar will
host the Tonys' pre-show on Pluto.

Tony Pre-Show: Emmy Award winner Julianne Hough and star of CBS’ GHOSTS Utkarsh Ambudkar will host THE TONY AWARDS: ACT ONE, a live pre-show with exclusive content that is available to viewers for free on Pluto TV beginning Sunday, June 16 at 6:30-8:00 PM, ET/3:30-5:00 PM, PT. Hough, who starred in the hit Broadway play “POTUS,” and Ambudkar, who made his Broadway debut in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s improvisational hip-hop show “Freestyle Love Supreme,” will kick off Broadway’s biggest night with the presentation of the first round of Tony Awards during the exciting pre-show telecast. 

Immediately following, THE 77TH ANNUAL TONY AWARDS, with Academy Award winner and Tony Award nominee Ariana DeBose, will air live from the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, from 8:00-11:00 PM, LIVE ET/5:00-8:00 PM, LIVE PT on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ in the U.S. (live and on-demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on-demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the special airs)*.

No word yet on which awards will be presented on Pluto and which on CBS.

B'way Update: The Hills of California

Jez Butterworth's The Hills of
California in London
Credit: Mark Douet

The Hills of California, the latest play from Jez Butterworth (Tony winner for The Ferryman), will transfer from London's West End to Broadway this fall. Previews begin Sept. 11 at the Broadhurst Theater prior to a Sept. 29 opening. Oscar winner Sam Mendes who staged The Ferryman will reunite with Butterworth, repeating his London staging. Broadway casting will be announced at a later date.

The synopsis reads: “In the sweltering heat of a 1970s summer, the Webb sisters return to their childhood home in Blackpool, an English seaside town, where their mother Veronica lies dying upstairs. Gloria and Ruby now have families of their own. Jill never left. And Joan? No one’s heard from her in twenty years… but Jill insists that their mother’s favorite won’t let them down this time.

“The run-down Sea View Guest House is haunted by bittersweet memories of amusement park rides and overdue bills. Back in the 1950s, each night the girls rehearse their singing act, managed by their fiercely loving single mom. But when a record producer offers a shot at fame and a chance to escape, it will cost them all dearly.”

Thoughts on Civil War and Trump Conviction

Caellie Spaeny and Kirsten Dunst in
Civil War (A24)

I was going to write something about Alex Garland's Civil War film which we saw last weekend at Regal Kaufman-Astoria, but then Trump's 34-count guilty conviction erupted all over the news. The two events seem connected. Civil War imagines a dystopian near-future of America at war with itself and the jury verdict demonstrates our actual internal cold cultural-political war. 

Civil War is an effective action thriller with thematic overtones of the role of photojournalism, but wants to have it both ways politically so as not to offend either side of the spectrum and thus alienate a potential audience. We're in some future time where 31 states have seceded. It's never explained why. Most of the action follows a group of journalists driving to Washington DC from NYC to interview the beleaguered President (Parks and Recreations' Nick Offerman) before he is captured by the insurrectionist Western Forces of Texas and California. Director-screenwriter Garland deliberately confuses us as to who is on which side and whom we should sympathize with. The traveling reporters and photogs encounter brutal racists and incredible violence without identifying whether the combatants are with or against the authorities. The subtext of this part of the film focuses on the status of the neutrality of the journalists. They are just there to record the facts and images and let their public decide. The main character Lee (Kirsten Dunst) and her colleague reporter (Wagner Moura) work for Reuters and  make no statements of allegiance to either side.

Book Review: Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage and the Making of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

(Received as a birthday present): My parents must have sensed something was up when I started quoting Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf at age 12. Edward Albee's scathing portrayal of a sadomasochistic marriage always intrigued me. I first saw the movie on TV and even with network edits, it was so powerful. Then I viewed the film on the big screen in college and was overwhelmed. This is probably Elizabeth Taylor's best performance and Richard Burton's too. Philip Gefter entertainingly exposes the struggles to get this explosive property on film, and the backstage conflicts, principally between producer Ernest Lehman and first-time director Mike Nichols. Gefter traces the origins of the play and the bohemian gay circles Albee inhabited. The impact of Virginia Woolf on popular culture is seismic as it tore off the facade of polite depictions of American marriage and showed the raging emotions underneath.

The film version effectively ended studio censorship and ushered in the ratings system so film language was no longer so restricted.

Of course, the meat of the book is the day-to-day travails of filming which were mainly a power struggle between Nichols and Lehman. The Burtons did not make things any easier. Their contracts stipulated they would not work before 10am and at 6 pm sharp, an assistant would show up on set with a Bloody Mary for each of them signaling they were through for the day. It's that kind of detail that makes the book fun to read.