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How was Edward Albee’s play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? adapted for Mike Nichols’s first film?

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Mike Nichols, wearing a black tuxedo and bow tie, stands smiling at a podium with a star-shaped award in front of him at the AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards. — Mike Nichols American director Mike Nichols in 2010. He was one of only a few people to have ever earned an EGOT, having won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony over the course of his career.

Mike Nichols’s 1966 film adaptation of Edward Albee’s 1962 play, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, marked his debut as a film director. To adapt the stage production, Nichols approached the script as a "comic tragedy," a form requiring a delicate balance.1234

The film featured Elizabeth Taylor as Martha and Richard Burton as George, alongside George Segal and Sandy Dennis. Despite initial skepticism regarding the casting of the high-profile couple, the film was critically acclaimed for its raw, emotionally draining performances—with Taylor delivering a notable "deglamorized" portrayal—and for breaking industry barriers through its use of explicit language. The production was a significant box-office success and received numerous Academy Award nominations, with Taylor winning for Best Actress and Dennis for Best Supporting Actress.132