VEREEN HAS INTIMATE KNOWLEDGE OF LIFE'S FRAGILITY

Rehabilitation Teaches Lessons On Life

On one side stands the mighty Brooklyn Bridge. On the other, the Manhattan
Bridge. In between stands Ben Vereen, looking every bit as vital as the
mammoth girders that loom above him. It is morning in Brooklyn, and Vereen
can't wait to follow one of these two hulking spans into Manhattan and then
Broadway, where the Tony-winning song and dance man has always gravitated
like a moth to light.

"I have a rehearsal today," he says. "You know what's a good feeling? When
you wake up in the morning and you go, 'I have a place to go! It's called a
theater and I have a job!' "

There is a good reason for such glee: Vereen just marked the 10th
anniversary of an auto accident that left him with serious head and
internal injuries that required four hours of surgery. Few expected him to
walk again, much less perform.

"I have problems," he says. "I have taxes and bills and things with
relationships that I have to go through. But thank God that I'm waking up
today to deal with it."

This month, Vereen reprises the role of retired boxer Midge Carter in a
revival of "I'm Not Rappaport," the drama of two older men coming to grips
with their lives and infirmities.

Much has changed for Vereen since he first tackled the role in the late
1980s. This time, he has infused the past with what he learned from his own
agonizing years of rehabilitation.

"I draw on the frailty and the aging process," says Vereen, 55, who is
paired with Judd Hirsch. "Midge has got his angst. He's weaker than he was
in his prime. I know about that stuff. That applies to me."

Vereen in real life betrays little of such angst and ill health. Though his
beard is flecked with gray, he laughs heartily and moves as gracefully as
he did in such musicals as 'Hair," "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Pippin."

Vereen's new home is in one of the hottest areas of Brooklyn, the borough
where he was raised. It's a neighborhood of former factories and warehouses
that is affectionately known as DUMBO -- Down Under the Manhattan Bridge
Overpass.

Ten years ago, nobody came to these rough streets. Now Civil War-era
buildings are slated to become malls or are being converted into lofts.
Vereen lives in a former paper factory that is dotted with chic apartments.

"If the element of good comes, the element of bad has to leave," he says.

That might as well be Vereen's motto. Despite heartache in his life that
includes the loss of a daughter, his faith remains intact. The accident
only made it stronger.

"I do believe in prayer. I do believe in a higher power. And I do believe
in God, Allah, Buddha, Jesus, whomever you decide to call the divinity. The
power of that is within us all and if we allow it, it can restore us."

That faith also has propelled Vereen to donate his time to everything from
helping drug addicts to stopping Sudden Infant Death Syndrome to fighting
heart disease to boosting inner city arts.

Vereen's 30-year-old daughter, Malaika, says she has seen her dad bounce
back from turbulent times while retaining his desire to help others.

"My father has so much strength and love in him and that's really the
hardest part: He really feels for people and it's in his soul," she says.
Then she adds with a note of anxiety, "It concerns me that it's in his soul."

Vereen left Brooklyn for the first time when he attended the High School
for the Performing Arts in Manhattan in the early 1960s. Enough people saw
talent in the cocky gang member to push him over the bridge.

During an audition for the musical "Sweet Charity," Vereen later caught the
attention of legendary choreographer Bob Fosse, who would play an important
part in the young dancer's life.

Vereen won roles in "Pippin," "Hair," 'Jesus Christ Superstar" and later
"Grind," and appeared in such movies as "All That Jazz."

On television, he co-starred in TV's landmark series "Roots," and had a
recurring role in the 1990s police show, "Silk Stalkings." His 1978 network
special, "Ben Vereen: His Roots," won six Emmys.

However, a nasty cocaine addiction kicked in as his fortunes rose. In 1987,
tragedy struck as his 16-year-old daughter, Naja, was killed when the
family van was crushed by a tractor-trailer.

"I lost a lot of things in those days during the drug period, a lot of
personal things. The most important thing was time -- time I could have
spent with my children," he says. "I could have spent more valuable time
with her."

Five years later, in June 1992, Vereen's own life was threatened when he
crashed his Corvette into a tree near his home in Malibu, Calif. Later that
day, he was struck by an SUV and thrown 130 feet while walking along
Pacific Coast Highway.

"When I was laying there in bed, the doctor said I'd never walk, I'd never
dance again, I'd never sing again," he recalls. "Every night when I
couldn't sleep, I'd sit there in prayer. I'd sit there and meditate on my
body."

By sheer will and force, he healed. Only 10 months later, Vereen made a
triumphant return to Broadway in "Jelly's Last Jam," opposite Gregory
Hines. Then he did the demanding "Fosse."

Vereen has become fast friends with the man who hit him, Grammy-winning
music producer David Foster.

"I had met him three years before and I had said, 'We should get together,'
" Vereen says with a sly smile. "A phone call would have been nice."

Says Malaika about the crash, "He looks at it truly as a blessing. He had
had a stroke earlier that evening and he thinks that was an intervention to
save his life. A lot of people wouldn't see it that way."

Her father soon became sober -- and spoke up about his experience, founding
Celebrities for a Drug-Free America, a nonprofit group dedicated to
educating youngsters about the dangers of drugs.

"I had a lot of problems after that. The industry said, 'We can't associate
with someone like this.' But I had to tell my story and take whatever the
consequences were. I'm not using today and that's the important thing. I'm
not that dark creature I was before."