Apr. 25, 1963 - The New York Drama Critics Circle today voted “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” the best play of the 1962-63 season. Seventeen reviewers participated in the voting at the group’s annual meeting in the Algonquin Hotel. They also awarded a special citation to “Beyond the Fringe,” the satirical English revue with Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller, and Peter Cook. “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” is Edward Albee’s first Broadway play. The previous works by the 34-year-old playwright, all one-act plays, have been presented Off Broadway. The controversial comedy-drama opened Oct. 13 at the Billy Rose Theater and was an immediate success. Uta Hagen (left), Arthur Hill (right), George Grizzard (second from left), and Melinda Dillon (second from right) originally starred in the four-character play. Mr. Albee’s play deals with two married couples whose lives are altered during an evening of drinking after a faculty party at a New England college. The playwright has said his work was “probably about the ways we get through life.”
