Broadway legend Ben Vereen has become the latest actor to be accused of sexual misconduct, joining the likes of Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons and Hollywood bigwig Harvey Weinstein.

In a damning report from The New York Daily News, the now 71-year-old actor is accused of attacked multiple young actresses who were in their 20s with unwanted kisses, aggressive hugging, stripping naked during an acting exercise and making inappropriate comments about their weight, sex appeal and personal lives in 2015.

All of this occurred while they were part of a Venice Theatre production of Hair Vereen was directing outside of Tampa, Florida.

Two of the women who came forward, Kaitlyn Terpstra (who was 22 at the time) and a woman who preferred to be only identified as Kim (who was 23) told the Daily News that Vereen invited them to his rental home in Florida on separate occasions in September of 2015 for “private rehearsals.”

However, practicing acting was apparently not his intent. Instead of showing them the ropes, he pressed his erect penis into their legs without warning.

According to the Daily News, the two victims stated that Vereen used the same lines to lure them, get them naked and get them into his hot tub.

“He gave this whole speech about how nudity was not inherently sexual. ‘That’s not what it’s about.’ He made me feel that if I wasn’t mature enough to understand that, I wasn’t mature enough to be in Hair,” Terpstra said.

“He basically told both of us, ‘Get over yourself. Nudity doesn’t have to be sexual.’ If we asked questions or hesitated, we were the ones making it weird,” Kim added.

“He was acting as my mentor, asking me about my parents, then that same night, he put me on his lap while I was crying, and I felt his erection,” Terpstra said.

“He asked me, ‘Feel that?’ It was terrifying. I said, 'Feel what?' I wanted to act like I didn't. I pushed myself off with a laugh. Then later, he asked, ‘Do you think I want to f*ck you?’ I said ‘Yes,’ and he got angry. He said, ‘Well, I don't, and that's unfortunate.' He made me feel like I had my mind in the gutter.”

Cast members have portrayed Vereen as a manipulative opportunist.

As the #MeToo movement gained steam, Terpstra posted her experience with Vereen on Facebook. Her fellow cast member Zach Wasson responded to her post, writing that he remembered vividly how unprofessional Vereen was during rehearsals.

“During warmups … he would meander through the group, totally ignoring the men, but groping and kissing on the women, ogling their bodies in a really obvious way. The women who demurred would inevitably be humiliated in the circle later,” Wasson wrote.

Cast member Ariella Pizarro told the News that she was one of the women Vereen forcibly kissed.

“We were in a music rehearsal, and he was just walking around, and then he walked up and kissed me on the lips. It was so weird. We all knew Hair was going to be a different kind of production, like in the 60s, but he didn't even ask first. He just kissed me. I was shocked, for sure," Pizarro said.

She added, “He didn’t shove his tongue down my throat, but it gave me an uneasy feeling. Then he moved on. I didn't know what to do. From that point on, I kept myself at arm’s length with Ben.”

The feeling grew worse after Vereen hugged her one night as she was leaving the theater. Later that night, she received a text from Vereen that read: "Yo [sic] felt so good tonight."

An actress who asked to be called Vera told the News that when invited to Vereen's house for rehearsal, she brought two male cast members with her. Not to be denied, she said that Vereen used a pretext to get the two men to leave.

Then Vereen "proceeded to wrap his arms around me and lay me down on the couch. I was shocked. I had never been in a situation like that before,” Vera said. “He kept whispering things into my ear like, ‘Relax’ and, ‘Give yourself to me.’ After the initial shock wore off I stopped his advances. He was never pleasant to me again.”

Nudity is, of course, a part of Hair. The musical about hippie culture has a big nude scene that shocked audiences back when the show debuted in 1967.

Vereen was in the original production of Hair from 1968 to 1967, and Terpstra and her cast mates say that the actor used that fact, and the fact that the show has a nude scene to try to normalize his inappropriate behavior.

He even worked to make the cast believe that his star power and coaching would allow all of them to take the show on the road. He also promised to help the cast get into the actor's union, the Actors' Equity Association. Acceptance into that union guarantees health insurance, a set minimum wage and is seen as a major push towards a professional acting career.

“He mentioned all of us getting our Equity cards. He said if we went on tour, we would all get our cards,” Kim said. “There were lots of those kinds of promises. He was painting glorious pictures.”

Despite enduring hardships, in order to get those cards Kim, Terpstra and the rest of the cast carried on.

That is, until the last night of rehearsal. In November of 2015, Vereen allegedly made offensive comments to Terpstra in front of the whole the cast as they got on their robes in preparation for the big nude scene.

“[My robe] was very short," Terpstra said. "I had mine on, I was one of the last ones to grab a robe, and he said in front of several members of the cast, 'Yours is very short. Everyone will see your cooter, not that everyone hasn't seen it anyway.' I got really mad."

A few moments later, Vereen went up to her and asked if she had an issue with him. Terpstra said she'd had enough, and yelled, "“Don't ever flirt with me again!"

She said that Vereen brushed it off by replying, "Flirt with you? Why would anyone want to flirt with you?," before telling her to follow him into the hall, where she says a heated argument began.

“He backed me against the wall," Terpstra said. "I started to walk away and he grabbed my arm so hard, it made a slapping noise,” she recalled, adding that when he grabbed her, she yelled, “Don’t f*cking touch me.”

Cast member Brian Finnerty collaborated Terpstra's story, adding that the cast could hear almost every word.

“‘Don't f*cking touch me!' and 'I said get off!' were comments I heard from Terpstra against Vereen as he was trying to put his hands on her,” Finnerty said.

The theater's executive director, Murray Chase, was finally called in to break up the altercation. When telling him her side of the story, Terpstra said she is pretty sure she only mentioned the forced kisses. Chase attended the final dress rehearsal after she told him this, but told the News that until recently, he'd thought that there had only been an isolated kissing incident.

“While we were aware of an altercation between Ben Vereen and Ms. Terpstra, we have now learned of additional situations,” he said. “We are working to strengthen our sexual harassment policies and procedures, including the reporting of them, to prevent any future occurrences.”

The theater has paid for Kim and Terpstra to receive counselling; both had said they can no longer act thanks to Vereen's actions.

She said Chase had to step in, walking with her outside and listening as she sobbed. Terpstra said she’s not sure exactly what she told him, but she thinks she mentioned at least one forced kiss. She said Chase later sat in on the final dress rehearsal, but Vereen was not banned from the building.

For his part, Vereen made no effort to deny the allegations, as some, like Simmons, have done.

Instead Vereen told The Daily News that he did bad things, but that he has grown in the two years since the incidents occurred.

“I would like to apologize directly to the female cast members of the musical Hair for my inappropriate conduct when I directed the production in 2015,” he said. “While it was my intention to create an environment that replicated the themes of that musical during the rehearsal process, I have since come to understand that it is my conduct, not my intentions, which are relevant here.”

To this, Vereen added, “Going forward, my having come to terms with my past conduct will inform all my future interactions not only with women, but with all individuals. I hope these women will find it in their hearts to accept my sincere apology and forgive me."

Ben Vereen

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