HOUSTON -- Elegant Jones Hall is far removed from the (in)famous Kit Kat Club, but Joel Grey is sure to "Willkommen" patrons when the Tony- and Academy Award-winner as the M.C. in Cabaret (1967 for the former, 1972 for the latter) performs with the Houston Symphony-Exxon Pops April 3 - 5. In his five-decade career, Grey has starred in more than 40 theatrical productions. His debut, in 1941 at age 9, was in On Borrowed Time at the Cleveland Playhouse. He was recently seen as "Mr. Cellophane," Amos Hart, in the City Center's 1995 revival of Chicago, which began as part of its "Encores" series and then moved to Broadway. In the fifty years in between, among his numerous credits, he received Tony Award nominations for the musicals George M! (1969), Goodtime Charley (1975) , and The Grand Tour (1979).

Grey's films include Man on a Swing, The Seven Percent Solution, Kafka, and The Music of Chance. Theater buffs might be most interested in a Grey movie tentatively to be released this spring: The Fantasticks.

Grey performs with the Houston Symphony-Exxon Pops April 3 - 5 at Jones Hall in Houston. For tickets, $19 - $59, call (800) 282-ARTS