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Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? has been an essential part of American theater – even more to the point, American culture – for over half a century. For most people, the experience of the play is defined by the 1966 film adaptation, directed by Mike Nichols, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. It enjoyed Oscar®-winning success, film buffs hold it in high esteem, and its stars – in their larger-than-life presence, their voices, their magic – continue to cast long shadows across Albee’s drama. For all the film has to offer, though, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? always seems more in-the-moment, more ferocious, more astonishing on the stage. And that phenomenon began with the original Broadway production, which opened on October 13, 1962, at the Billy Rose Theatre. When we talk about long-ago stage productions of great plays, most of us have to imagine. In the case of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? we have something far better. In the winter of 1963, a few months after the play opened, Columbia Records took the unusual step of bringing the original cast – Uta Hagen, Arthur Hill, Melinda Dillon and George Grizzard – into the studio to perform the entire play for an audio recording. At that time, there was a small but committed audience for audio recordings of plays. The advent of the long-playing record had made these recordings easier to listen to, and – especially for people who did not or could not travel to New York – they offered a concentrated taste of what great theater at least sounded like. Columbia had been making audio recordings of plays and other “spoken word” projects since the 1940s. None would have the impact of this recording of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? which was produced by Columbia’s legendary chief and tastemaker, Goddard Lieberson.