Becoming Mike Nichols

The Genesis of the Acclaimed Director

In the summer of 2014, Mike Nichols sat down with his friend and colleague Jack O’Brien to discuss Nichols’ early career: his stint as a ‘50s sketch performer with The Compass Players and Second City, the comedy partnership with Elaine May that turned both into stars, and his shift to directing in the mid-‘60s, when he enjoyed phenomenal success on Broadway and in Hollywood, winning acclaim as a first-time film director with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and a 1968 Best Directing Oscar® for The Graduate.

The conversations took place over two days – one with an audience and one without – on a stage very familiar to Nichols: Broadway’s Golden Theatre, where “An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May” was staged 55 years earlier. As he explains in this lively and entertaining documentary (accented by photo stills and clips from some of his iconic work), Nichol’s early journey was fueled by a combination of good luck, passion, talent and empathy – all geared towards finding the “part of us that comes out of the subconscious,” and creating something new, memorable and thrilling.

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