Joel Grey marks 80th birthday on Broadway stage
(CBS/ AP) NEW YORK - Oscar-winning actor Joel Grey celebrated his 80th birthday Wednesday by doing what he always does - taking the stage for his latest Broadway musical "Anything Goes."
But when it came to the curtain call, cast mates surprised him by wheeling out a birthday cake. Then stage and screen legend Bernadette Peters came onstage to lead the audience in a few celebratory verses of "Happy Birthday."
The actor, who proclaimed "Eighty is the new sixty," read a birthday letter from his 101-year old aunt, who ended it by saying "try to catch up with me."
After posing backstage with the cast for photographs, the Oscar-winning actor told The Associated Press that he was having more fun in his life than ever before.
"Everything seems fresh and new and exciting to me," Grey said.
Grey won both a Tony (1966) and an Oscar (1972) for his role as master of ceremonies in "Cabaret."
His other stage credits include "Come Blow Your Horn" (1961), "Stop the World - I Want to Get Off" (1962), "George M!" (1968), "Chicago" (1996), and "Wicked" (2003), in which he originated the role of the Wizard of Oz.