Cocktails with George and Martha: Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and the making of 'Who’s Afraid of...

— —

Philip Gefter

Cocktails with George and Martha

Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and the making of 'Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'

Philip Gefter

$49.99

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

BONNIER
02 July 2024

Film, TV & Radio; Individual actors & performers; Film theory & criticism; Biography: arts & entertainment

'Very smart and entertaining . . . dishy-yet-earnest . . . Gefter shows why Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? hit the '60s like a torpedo.' - NPR, Fresh Air

'Raucous, unpredictable, wild, and affecting.' - Entertainment Weekly

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 Albee's Who's 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 through decades of marriage. It scandalized critics but magnetized audiences. Across 644 sold-out Broadway performances, the drama demolished the wall between what could and couldn't be said on the American stage and marked a definitive end to the I Love Lucy 1950s.

Then, Hollywood took a colossal gamble on Albee's sophisticated play-and 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 classic-surviving censorship attempts, its director's inexperience, and its stars' own tumultuous marriage-is 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 Village's bohemian 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 couples-one fictional, one all too real-forced a nation to confront its most deeply held myths about relationships, sex, family, and, against all odds, love.

By: Philip Gefter
Imprint: BONNIER
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 162mm, Spine: 34mm
Weight: 592g
ISBN: 9781804186756
ISBN 10: 1804186759
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 02 July 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

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, Aperture, and the New York Times, where he was an editor and photography critic for over fifteen years. He also served as a producer on the award-winning documentary, Bill Cunningham: New York. He lives in New York City.

Reviews for Cocktails with George and Martha: Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and the making of 'Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'

"""A lively, well-researched book that displays great affection for the film and the highly gifted and vastly troublesome people who made it."" Glenn Frankel, Washington Post ""Delicious . . . unapologetically obsessive . . . [Gefter gets] to the marrow: of male ego, rushing into new projects with hubris and jostling for posterity."" New York Times Book Review ""Good, harrowing fun . . . Just as the extreme nature of George and Martha's all-night brawl helps us to understand all marriages, the antics of Liz and Dick and Mike and Ernie reveal the love-hate dynamic that's common to all artistic collaborations."" The Wall Street Journal ""Charming . . . filled with enjoyable anecdotes and recollections of how Hollywood accidentally makes great movies from time to time."" The New Republic ""[An] erudite study . . . Gefter persuasively credits the film with setting the template for more bracing Hollywood depictions of love after romance's first blush. This will renew readers' admiration for the classic film and its source material."" Publishers Weekly ""[Gefter] virtuosically plumbs the depths of Albee's masterwork and its cultural impact . . . Cocktails with George and Martha offers a gimlet-eyed interpretation of Albee's play, and by book's end, readers should be fully behind Gefter's submission that Virginia Woolf challenged 'the hypocrisies of mainstream America, herald[ed] the sexual revolution, and register[ed] an entirely new psychological dimension to the public discourse."" Shelf Awareness ""Terrific! With a dynamically deft touch, Philip Gefter chronicles how a uniquely volatile mix of timing, talent, pressure, and passion turned a landscape-altering play into a cinematic detonation. Savor this juicy bit of time travel, because we'll never see the likes of these people and these circumstances again."" Steven Soderbergh, Academy Award-winning filmmaker"