the last book I ever read (Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, excerpt four)

from Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Philip Gefter:

Tennessee Williams attended one of the preview performances and concluded that the play is “one of those works that extend the frontiers of the stage.” Gore Vidal’s sister, Nina Steers, sent Wilder a note after the opening to say that both she and Gore adored the play, and offered to throw an opening night party should it come to Washington. Elizabeth Ashley, the Broadway actress who won a Tony that year for Take Her, She’s Mine, attended the opening night performance. “I remember being enthralled and overwhelmed by it,” she said. “Uta Hagen was this acting legend; finally seeing her was just extraordinary. Rarely do you see a great actor strip off the skins to where you see raw, naked, primal power.” Colleen Dewhurst, who had been offered the role of Martha for the matinee cast, and had to decline because of a previous commitment, was there on opening night, as well. “There was an air of excitement in the audience that went beyond my wildest expectations,” she said. “This was not just a special opening night. Both the playwright and the cast made theater history that night.” Among those who saw it in the opening weeks was the playwright A. R. Gurney. “I was teaching at M.I.T. at the time,” Gurney said, “and introductory course to Western Culture—Sophocles, ‘The Confessions of St. Augustine’—and I added Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? to the list as soon as I got back.”

Perhaps the most meaningful response came from John Steinbeck, who had just won the Nobel Prize in literature. He was present on opening night and, afterward, sent a note of congratulations to Albee: “The flash of the moment of truth is blinding …. When Walt Whitman sent his home-printed copies of Leaves of Grass to the so-called giants of his time, only Emerson deigned to reply. He said—and I want to plagiarize—‘I salute you on the threshold of a great career.’ Isn’t it interesting that only the vulgar papers found your play vulgar? But that was inevitable, I guess,” He added, “I want to see it again and again.”

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?vpaid its investors back in only thirty-one performances. “Broadway did make a difference,” wrote Gussow. “Albee was put on a pedestal, occasionally knocked down from that pedestal; repeatedly interviewed, he was quoted, courted, and invited.” Barely a month after the opening, Albee was honored with an invitation to the White House as part of a delegation of tastemakers to meet President John F. Kennedy.