Steppin' out with Ben Vereen at the Dakota

Google "Usher" and "Ben Vereen," and more than 4,000 stories pop up, some with side-by-side photos of the two entertainers in similar hats with the same broad smiles. There are comparisons of their noses, complexion and dance moves.

Some stories even claim outright that the two famous stars, 32 years apart, are blood relatives.

"I hear that all the time -- that Usher is my love child," said Vereen, speaking by phone and laughing as he drove to a retreat last weekend in California's Napa Valley. "I love him, and he even claims me as a father. But I tell him, 'Son, you're my godson.' I've taught him a lot. If you want to see his moves, come see my show."

An irrepressible showman who has survived a heady New York upbringing and a near-fatal accident to pursue his passion, Vereen appears tonight and Monday at the Dakota Jazz Club, backed by a musical trio.

He will share songs from his four decades in show business, including numbers from "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Pippin," for which he won a Tony Award.

He may also dance a bit, including some Bob Fosse-choreographed moves. And he will tell some stories on his famous friends.

"The show is basically a tribute to my friend Sammy Davis Jr.," said Vereen, who understudied Davis in the 1960s in "Golden Boy." "It's a smorgasbord of everything. And I'll be trying out some new material."

That Vereen, 62, is still performing is something of a miracle. In 1992, he was hit by a vehicle while walking near his Malibu home, breaking his leg and precipitating a stroke.

"They had to do a bunch of operations on me," he said. "When I was going in for my fourth operation, I remember asking the nurse if I was going to die. But she looked at me and said 'No.' That, and people's prayers, pulled me through."

Ten months later, he had recovered enough to be in "Jelly's Last Jam" on Broadway.

Vereen grew up in the rough Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York, and attended the High School for the Performing Arts. Even as his fame grew, Vereen lived with blanks in his own story. He found out in his early 20s that he was adopted but could not locate his biological family. Four years ago, he found them in the Carolinas, a reunion story that echoes the search of his most famous screen character in the TV miniseries "Roots."

"We joke about it, and say, my God, Chicken George found his roots," Vereen said.