When Broadway, film and TV dynamo Ben Vereen opened the Washington Center a quarter-century ago, he was already one of the world's proven talents. He won a Tony for Pippin in 1973, a year after playing Judas in the Broadway debut of Jesus Christ Superstar.  He's still recognized for playing "Chicken George" in the landmark TV miniseries Roots and bantering with a pre-fame Jeff Goldblum on Tenspeed and Brown Shoe (1980). He remains active on Broadway (Chicago, Wicked) and TV, where he's appeared in everything from Webster to Grey's Anatomy to Oz. Now he's back for a true Washington Center gala Staurday night.  When I spoke to him by phone last week, his passion for performance was undiminished.  Not even a devastating accident and stroke in 1992, Type 2 diabetes or the fact that he's approaching his 64th birthday slow him down.  "(The show)'s called B2B: Brooklyn to Broadway," he said, "sort of an autobiographical musical journey of my life. ... I can't wait to be back!  We're gonna celebrate 25 years and have a wonderful time."

B2B pays tribute to several of the amazing talents Vereen met on his way to the limelight.  Among these were Sammy Davis Jr. and Bob Fosse, about whom Vereen says, "He was a friend of mine.  Those people that leave us don't leave us.  Their spirit's always around." 

Vereen himself became something of a roving professor: He's Usher's godfather and served as acting coach to Outkast and Terence Howard on Idlewild. Neil Patrick Harris and Wayne Brady worked side by side with him on How I Met Your Mother. He believes one of the greatest lessons he can instill in his students is "enthusiasm for life.  Wow, look what I've had the opportunity to do with my life, and I'm still doing it. ... The reason I teach is I want to instill that in students.  It's not a job, it's a life-changing possession. It's a wonderful life, and I want it for everybody.  Maybe I'm out there doing it, but maybe they'll say, ‘It's possible for me as well.'  From where I came to where I am today is a blessing."

I commented on the horny virility of Fosse's choreography, and I wondered whether moves like that from an African-American were shocking to Broadway audiences of the early 1970s.  "I think so," he agrees, "but it was shocking enough that they had to come back and get it again and again."  He says some people were offended that a black man was cast as Judas in 1972.  "I'm an employed actor, so I look at it that way.  But I'm aware of the degrading attitudes that certain people put upon certain people of race.  I've been blessed enough to transcend that."

Vereen isn't headed into the sunset any time soon.  "What blows my mind is we're actually living through the time when we have cell phones! I have my whole office in my hand." He's active @BenVereen on Twitter:  "My people are there!  Wherever they go, that's where I want to be.  Twitter me, and I'll Twitter you!"  I asked him if, after one of entertainment's most dazzling careers, there's still a role he's dying to play.  "Yes, the next one," he says immediately.  "In fact, I'm not dying to play it, I'm living to play it."

<An Evening with Ben Vereen

Saturday, Sept. 25, 6 p.m., $200/person
Washington Center, 512 Washington St. SE, Olympia
360.753.8586