He’s going to completely rock “Eddie’s Teddy.”
Broadway legend (and Usher’s godfather) Ben Vereen has been announced as joining the cast of Fox’s Fall 2016 live Rocky Horror Picture Show broadcast. Vereen will play Dr. Everett Scott, who has a connection to Brad Majors (Ryan McCartan) and Janet Weiss (Victoria Justice), who met in his college science class. But he’s not just a science professor — Dr. Scott is also a government UFO researcher, there at that mysterious castle (or wherever Fox updates it) to investigate the Transylvanians and the disappearance of his nephew Eddie (Adam Lambert). Orange is the New Black’s LaVerne Cox plays the “sweet transvestite” Dr. Frank N. Furter.
Television audiences may remember Vereen for playing Will Smith’s absentee father on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and more powerfully as Chicken George in Roots. (A select few will remember his teaming with Jeff Goldblum in Tenspeed and Brownshoe.) Even more importantly, he is immortal for his creating the role of the Leading Player in Bob Fosse’s original production of Pippin, for which he won a Tony in 1972. He echoed the role for Fosse’s autobiographical film All That Jazz.
In addition to Vereen, Fox snagged original Frank N. Furter Tim Curry to play the Criminologist/Narrator.
