P. J. Benjamin

P. J. Benjamin (born September 2, 1951)^[3] is an American actor known for his work in theatre.

P. J. Benjamin
Born	(1951-09-02) September 2, 1951 (age 74) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.[1]
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1973–present
Known for	Playing the Wizard in Wicked and Amos in Chicago
Spouse	Louisa Flaningam[2]

Career

A native of Chicago, Illinois,^[1] Benjamin made his Broadway debut in the 1973 revival of The Pajama Game.^[4] He has since performed in at least seven other Broadway shows as well as various touring, off-Broadway, and regional productions.^[3][5]

Benjamin is best known for his performances as Amos Hart in Chicago and the Wizard of Oz in Wicked. Between 1997 and 2006, he played Amos in the Broadway production and two national tours of Chicago.^[6][7][8] The musical shared on its official Facebook page that Benjamin had performed as Amos on Broadway for 1,989 days, which was "more than any other actor for any other character" in the production as of November 2011.^[9] He joined Wicked's first North American tour as the Wizard in 2006.^[10] He played the Wizard on Broadway from 2008 to 2011,^[2] performed in the tour in 2012,^[11] and returned to the Broadway production in 2015 and again in 2017.^[12][13]

Outside his work in theatre, Benjamin has appeared in films and television series, including Ice Age, Law & Order, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.^[2]

Personal life

He is married to actress Louisa Flaningam.^[2]

Theatre credits

Year	Show	Role	Venue	Ref.
1973	The Pajama Game	Dancer	Broadway	[4]
1979	Saravá	Vadinho	Broadway	[14]
1980	Charlie and Algernon	Charlie	Broadway	[15]
1981	Sophisticated Ladies	Performer	Broadway	[16]
1985	Wind in the Willows	Chief Weasel	Broadway	[17]
1992	Chess	Walter	Paper Mill Playhouse	[18]
1993	Ain't Broadway Grand	Mike Todd (standby)	Broadway	[5]
	Promises, Promises	J. D. Sheldrake	Goodspeed Opera House	[19]
1995	Brigadoon	Jeff	Paper Mill Playhouse	[20]
1997	Houdini	Martin Beck	Goodspeed Opera House	[21]
1997–2000	Chicago	Amos Hart	National tour	[6]
2002	A Saint She Ain't	W. C. Fields	Westport Country Playhouse	[22]
2003–2005	Chicago	Amos Hart	Broadway	[23]
2005			National tour	[24]
2006	Wicked	The Wizard of Oz	First North American tour	[10]
2008	Damn Yankees	Joe Boyd	Encores! Summer Stars	[25]
2008–2011	Wicked	The Wizard of Oz	Broadway	[2]
2012			First North American tour	[11]
2013	I Forgive You, Ronald Reagan	Ray	Off-Broadway	[26]
2015	Wicked	The Wizard of Oz	Broadway	[12]
	Moonshine: That Hee Haw Musical	Grandpa	Dallas Theater Center	[27]
2016	The Wizard of Oz	Professor Marvel/The Wizard	The Muny	[28]
2017	Wicked	The Wizard of Oz	Broadway	[13]
2022	Choir Boy	Mr. Pendleton	Philadelphia Theatre Company	[29]