Maas and Menken were known for their infamous salons, where drinking would “commence at 4pm on Friday and end in the wee hours of night on Monday” (according to Gerard Malanga, Warhol associate and friend to Maas). Maas was a professor of literature at Wagner College (one similarity between the character George and Willard) and his wife Marie was an experimental filmmaker and painter. They share the names of President George Washington and his wife Martha Custis Dandridge Washington, America’s first First Couple. In another interview, Albee acknowledged that he based the characters of Martha and George on his good friends, New York socialites Willard Maas and Marie Menken. In interviews, Albee has said that he asked Woolf’s widower Leonard Woolf for permission to use her name in the title of the play. And it did strike me as being a rather typical, university intellectual joke.Įvidence of the joke’s humor, or existence has yet to be obtained. who’s afraid of living life without false illusions. And of course, who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf means who’s afraid of the big bad wolf. When I started to write the play it cropped up in my mind again. I was in there having a beer one night, and I saw “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” scrawled in soap, I suppose, on this mirror. Martha repeatedly needles George over whether he found it funny. In the first few moments of the play, it is revealed that someone sang the song earlier in the evening at a party, although who first sang it (Martha or some other anonymous party guest) remains unclear. This melody fits the meter fairly well and is in the public domain. Because obtaining the rights to use the music would have been expensive, most stage versions, and the film, have Martha sing to the tune of “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush”. The play’s title, which alludes to the English novelist Virginia Woolf, is a parody of the song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” from Walt Disney’s animated version of The Three Little Pigs. They stay even though the abuse turns periodically towards them as well. The younger couple are simultaneously fascinated and embarrassed. Once at home, Martha and George continue drinking and engage in relentless, scathing verbal and sometimes physical abuse in front of Nick and Honey. Nick (who is never addressed or introduced by name) is a biology professor (who Martha thinks teaches math), and Honey is his mousy, brandy-abusing wife. Martha is the daughter of the president of the college (believed to be based on Trinity College, Connecticut) where George is an associate history professor. In the play, George and Martha invite a new professor and his wife to their house after a party. Eugenia Rawls replaced Williams later in the run. The production was produced and directed by Herman Shumlin.
In addition to Bankhead as Regina Giddens, the opening night cast included Carl Benton Reid as Oscar, Charles Dingle as Benjamin, Frank Conroy as Horace, Patricia Collinge as Birdie, Dan Duryea as Leo, and Florence Williams as Alexandra. The play premiered on Februat the National Theatre and ran for 410 performances. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a play on the title of the once popular song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” from Walt Disney’s The Three Little Pigs, but named after the famous English novelist. However, the award’s advisory board-the trustees of Columbia University-objected to the play’s then-controversial use of profanity and sexual themes, and overruled the award’s advisory committee, awarding no Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1963. It was also selected for the 1963 Pulitzer Prize for Drama by that award’s drama jury. Its stars won the 1963 Tony Awards for Best Actor and Actress as well.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? won both the 1963 Tony Award for Best Play and the 1962-63 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play. Subsequent cast members included Henderson Forsythe, Eileen Fulton, Mercedes McCambridge, and Elaine Stritch. The original cast featured Uta Hagen as Martha, Arthur Hill as George, Melinda Dillon as Honey and George Grizzard as Nick. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a play by Edward Albee that opened on Broadway at the Billy Rose Theater on October 13, 1962. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf – Database