Mr. Cellophane speaks

If Curran owner and producer Carole Shorenstein Hays wasn’t already aware of the offer, she was put on notice when Grey — who’d directed the star-studded 2010 Manhattan staged reading that led to the 1985 play’s long-delayed and well-received Broadway debut — mentioned and repeated it to interviewer Kevin Sessums during an onstage conversation at the Curran, Tuesday, March 8.

At which point Sessums looked out over the packed audience, also seated on the stage, and called out, “Are you listening, Carole?”

Saying, “I don’t want to leave any expectations unfulfilled,” he beat-boxed the familiar opening notes and launched into a terrific, seductively raw and edgy a cappella rendition of “Willkommen,” the opening number from “Cabaret,” which he’d introduced in the original Broadway production as well as the 1972 film.

[...] Sessums and Grey settled into their chairs to talk about everything from the Curran, to Grey’s career and life, keying off the recent release of Grey’s memoir “Master of Ceremonies” and his coming out as gay last year, after a 25-year marriage to the woman he still describes as “the love of my life.”

Grey responded to Sessums’ probing with amiable banter — about his love for the Curran, where he’s appeared in four shows, including “Cabaret” and “Grand Tour,” and his long relationship with the Venetian Room (I’ve played there more than anywhere else) — and some telling, short anecdotes, particularly about his difficult relationship with Bob Fosse, who directed the “Cabaret” movie, and Grey says, really wanted to play the Emcee himself.

Grey’s tale of how he created that character, left undefined in the script, is a classic of the peculiar art of the actor.