Below is the hour-long celebration tonight of Joel Grey’s 88th year (the number of keys on a piano) and his EIGHTY-YEAR career, via Stars in the House, with Joel Grey himself, his daughter Jennifer Grey, as well as Kristin Chenoweth, Bernadette Peters, Ann Reinking, and Bebe Neuwirth wearing a party hat!

But first:

Al Hirschfeld caricature of Joel Grey as the Emcee

Joel David Katz as a child performer at the Cleveland Play House, early 1940s

Joel Grey with Ray Bolger “Learning the ropes from The Scarecrow,” 1940s.

Joel Grey with Judy Garland in his dressing room in the Place in 1967.

Joel Grey with his two children, James and a teenage Jennifer Grey, 1973.

Joel Grey posing with a male model in Duane Michel’s book “The Adventures of Constantine Cavafy, 2007

Joel Grey originating the part of the Wizard in Wicked, 2003

Joel Grey in Anything Goes, 2011

Joel Grey directing the Yiddish Fiddler on the Roof

Born Joel David Katz, the son of big band musician Mickey Katz, Grey got his first professional gig, in a straight play at the Cleveland Play House, at age 9, and has worked as a nightclub comic, TV guest star, Broadway song-and-dance man, Hollywood supporting player, and a serious actor. He is also a man who was married for more than two decades, and a father of two (including actress Jennifer Grey), who came out in People Magazine as a gay man at the age of 82. Best known of course as the emcee in Cabaret, for which he won both an Oscar and a Tony, he has done so much more than that — most recently as the director of the acclaimed Yiddish version of Fiddler on the Roof.