Joel Grey won an Oscar for his performance as the creepy Emcee in the 1972 movie version of “Cabaret.” But he did so in spite of — not because of — director Bob Fosse.
In fact, as Grey writes in his absorbing new memoir “Master of Ceremonies” (Flatiron Books), Fosse didn’t want him in the movie at all. His first choice to play the role was . . . Ruth Gordon, then riding high from her Oscar win as the sweetly sinister devil worshipper in “Rosemary’s Baby.”
Grey was stunned to read that bit of news one morning in Variety. He had won a Tony for creating the role of the Emcee in the 1966 Broadway production of “Cabaret.” But that was precisely problem: Aside from the score, Fosse didn’t want to use anything — or anyone — from the Broadway show.
Distraught, Grey called his agent Sam Cohn, who also represented Fosse. “You know how it goes,” Cohn replied. “At first they always want to reinvent the wheel. ‘Is Clint Eastwood available?’ ‘What if we offer it to Kirk Douglas?’”
The producers of the movie wanted Grey. Fosse responded: “It’s either me or Joel Grey.” To his chagrin, they said, “Then it’s Joel Grey.”
Fosse was nasty to Grey at the first rehearsal. He wanted Grey to do a back flip. Grey was terrified. Fosse told him there was nothing to it. He demonstrated — and landed on his face. He went to the hospital and that was the end of the back flip.
“That was his comeuppance in a way,” Grey tells me. “He wanted to control everything, but I couldn’t let him. I knew this character inside and out, and I was the keeper of the original musical. I had to stand up for it. I think he knew I was going to keep an eye on him.”
And that made for a tense set in Munich, where much of the film was shot.
Fosse hated spontaneity. He drilled his dancers in every move, right down to elbows, thumbs, head turns, even when to take a breath. He wanted Grey and the Kit Kat Klub dancers to be a polished company.
Grey resisted. “Fosse was a martinet, and the dancers loved him, because he was so good. But I’m a different kind of actor. I like to try new things, keep it fresh. And we weren’t supposed to be neat, perfect performers. We were supposed to be doing second-rate nightclub stuff. We were supposed to be crappy.”
Throughout the shoot, Fosse never once gave Grey a pat on the back. He wouldn’t even have dinner with him. Every now and then, though, Grey would do a take and see that his chilly director was smiling.
Then came the blow up. During a scene in which the Kit Kat girls mud wrestle, Grey, embracing spontaneity, stuck his finger in the mud and smeared a bit of it on his upper lip. “Heil Hitler!” he yelled and saluted.
“How dare you!” Fosse screamed, and stormed off the set.
Grey saw a screening of the movie several months later. Fosse had reduced all of his big musical numbers to snippets. His performance amounted to little more than a cameo. Furious, he called the producers. Don’t worry, they told him. The songs would be restored.
When the movie premiered, Grey’s celebrated numbers — “Willkommen,” “Two Ladies, “If You Could See Her” — were intact.
Something else wound up in the movie as well: The smear of mud on Grey’s upper lip along with his “Heil Hitler!”