Ben Vereen has spent six decades making the hardest things look easy. The singer, dancer and actor turns 80 on October 10, and the theater world is not letting the milestone pass quietly. The New Jersey Performing Arts Center has announced Ben Vereen’s 80th Birthday Concert for Saturday, November 21, in Newark. Vereen himself will perform. Melba Moore and Brian Stokes Mitchell are on the bill, and so are Lillias White and Shoshana Bean.
They will have plenty of material to choose from. Vereen was born in Laurinburg, North Carolina, in 1946 and was a Broadway star before he turned 30. He earned a Tony nomination as Judas in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ and won the Tony the following year for ‘Pippin.’ Television viewers met him in 1977 as Chicken George in ‘Roots,’ the miniseries that changed America, and the role brought him an Emmy nomination. Two years later he lit up Bob Fosse’s ‘All That Jazz.’ Children of the ’80s knew him as Uncle Phil on ‘Webster.’
Ben Vereen’s Greatest Comeback
His most remarkable performance may have been his own recovery. In 1992 Vereen suffered a stroke and was struck by a car while walking along a highway in Malibu. He was left with a broken leg and faced a long, painful rehabilitation, and he worked his way back. He has known deep sorrow as well. He lost his daughter Naja in 1987 and his son Ben Jr. in 2020.
Through all of it he kept performing. In 2025 the Chita Rivera Awards honored him with their Lifetime Achievement Award. At 80 he has earned the right to sit back and let others do the singing. Nobody who has seen him work expects him to stay in his seat for long.
