Life is a cabaret, old chum

My all-time favourite film Cabaret - which, had it not been for The Godfather, would have swept the board at The Oscars; as it is it won eight (including Best Director for Bob Fosse, Best Actress for Liza Minnelli and Best Supporting Actor for Joel Grey), and holds the record for most awards won by a film which did not win the Academy Award for Best Picture - received its UK premiere FIFTY YEARS AGO today...

All about Cabaret at Filmsite

Master of Ceremonies

Sharing the day with another bizarre assortment, including Lisa Stansfield, Cerys Matthews, Oleg Cassini, Bob Harris, Jill Gascoine, Mark Lawson, Joss Stone, Thomas Harris, Michael Callen, Shirley Stelfox, Stuart Adamson, and - erm - Jeremy Clarkson - happy 90th birthday, "Emcee" Mr Joel Grey!

Don't forget to blow really hard on those candles...

Here, life is beautiful

Many happy returns, Mr Joel Grey (born Joel David Katz, 11th April 1932)

The way you look tonight

Brandon de Wilde and Paul Newman in 'Hud'

Joel Grey and friend

Matt Damon and Jude Law in 'The Talented Mr. Ripley'

Sal Mineo and James Dean in 'Rebel Without a Cause'

Zat international zensation..!

It's the birthday today of our Patron Saint of Pizzazz, Miss Liza Minnelli! All hail.

Also worthy of note, however, if the fact that it is forty-five years since that magnificent cinematographic work of genius - the film that launched our elfin icon to international super-stardom - Cabaret was first released in cinemas.

I first saw it when it appeared on telly (lord knows when!), but I recall it had a life-changing influence on me. Not only was there the whiff of (divine) decadence and sleaze, the presence of a (slightly warped) heroine who gestured and emoted her way through a series of fantabulosa camp torch songs, and an "Emcee" of sinister-yet-thoroughly-enjoyable naughtiness, but also - and to me, this was everything - the sex-god that was Michael York playing a character admitting he was gay! I adored it way back then in my closeted youth, and it remains my favourite film of all time to this day...

Mr Bob Fosse is an absolute genius of a director. His sassy, vivacious, dance-oriented style is right up my street - and it is no surprise that his other memorable film Sweet Charity is also one of my faves - as one might expect given his long stage background, and the fact he was also the choreographer for such classic musicals as Kiss Me Kate, The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees. Yet, so it is said, he practically had to beg the producers to allow him on board for Cabaret [in Hollywood then, as now, commerce rather than quality is all; and Sweet Charity flopped at the box office (for some strange reason)]. But they gave in, thankfully - and the rest is history...

Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey - Money, Money

Liza Minnelli - Mein Herr

Joel Grey - Two Ladies

Liza Minnelli - Cabaret

Facts about Cabaret:

• Bob Fosse decided at an early stage not to make a film version of the stage musical. Instead, he revisited Christopher Isherwood's original works upon which the stage adaptation was originally based, and included characters and plot lines (especially those involving Fritz, Natalia and Max) from I Am a Camera and Berlin Stories that did not appear in the stage version.
• Mr Isherwood himself felt Liza Minnelli was too talented for the role. Sally, an amateur talent who lived under the delusion she had star quality, was in his opinion the antithesis of "Judy Garland's daughter".
• Two of the original stage show's leading musical numbers Don't Tell Mama and Married were removed from the film version, yet both actually appeared in the film. The former's bridge section appears as instrumental music played on Sally's gramophone; the latter is initially played on the piano in Fraulein Schneider's parlour and is later heard at Sally and Brian's picnic in a German translation (Heiraten) sung by cabaret singer Greta Keller.
• The song Maybe This Time was not written for the film. Kander and Ebb had written it years earlier for Kaye Ballard (and thus it was ineligible for an Academy Award nomination in 1973).
• Cabaret has the distinction of winning the most Oscars (eight in total, including Best Actress for Liza, Best Supporting Actor for Joel Grey and Best Director for Mr Fosse), without winning Best Picture.

Liza May Minnelli (born 12th March 1946)

Good morning, good morning!

...it works for Joel Grey!

If you could see her through my eyes

The great "Emcee" Joel Grey celebrates his 80th birthday today, and an exhibition dedicated to him opens in New York tomorrow.

Joel Grey/A New York Life examines the enduring impact that performer and photographer Joel Grey and his adopted city have made on each other. Through rare artifacts from his stage and screen career, objects from his personal collection, and his own photography, the exhibition offers a unique look at New York through Grey’s eyes. It will include posters, playbills, and costume pieces from Grey’s iconic productions, combined with a selection of his New York City photographs. Together, they dramatize how the breadth of his artistic work has been nurtured and inspired by his life in New York City.

With an illustrious career in the New York theatre spanning nearly six decades, Joel Grey is known for his Tony and Academy Award-winning portrayals of the Emcee in both the Broadway and film versions of Cabaret. In addition to his work for stage, screen, and television, Grey is also an accomplished photographer. Working behind the camera for nearly 40 years, he has made New York images—including some taken with his cell phone—that focus lovingly on the urban environment, including candid details of street life, signage, and New York's built environment. In accentuating overlooked moments and the multitude of everyday details of the city, Grey’s photographic work provides a quiet and poignant counterpoint to his life in the spotlight.

Joel Grey: A New York Life

Facts about Joel Grey:

• He is the son of Mickey Katz, the famous "gurgler" of the Spike Jones Orchestra.
• His daughter is actress Jennifer Grey, the star of Dirty Dancing.
• He originated the role of the Wizard in the musical Wicked.
• In 1991, he played Adam, a devil, in the final episode of Dallas.

"I think there's nothing like live theatre. Everyone wants to be part of it. So why not try it?"

"The fact that I got away with singing and dancing for a long time is still a miracle to me."

On old age: "I really don't deal with my self or my life by the numbers."

"I don't need to be on the stage to live."

Joel Grey, born 11th April 1932.

Joel Grey/A New York Life is at the Museum of the City of New York 12th April - 7th August 2012

More about the exhibition