One of the many pleasures of parenthood is being able to revisit joys from our youth — under the guise of introducing them to our unsuspecting kids — without the baggage of feeling juvenile or guilty about the time or cash spent. And while some experiences from yesteryear may make us wince upon being rediscovered by older and wiser eyes, Broadway’s “The Pee-wee Herman Show” doesn’t disappoint those of us that remember the Emmy Award-winning CBS television series, “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.”
Pee-wee Herman — played to comic perfection by apparently ageless actor Paul Reubens — is back at the top of his “I know you are, but what am I?” game.
The TV show, which premiered in 1986, featured Reubens as the cheeky, mercurial man-boy in the too-small gray suit and red bow tie and all of his friends — humans, puppets and animated furniture alike — that hung out in his magical clubhouse. Together they learned how to deal with bullies, endure a sick day, enjoy pen pals and much more.
Earlier this year, I introduced my son to the TV series via Image Entertainment’s DVD collection. While we enjoyed watching it together, I was disappointed by some segments’s dull and fuzzy quality — unacceptable in our current high-def world. So it was especially exhilarating to experience the glittering, jewel-toned eye-candy that is the set of the current stage production. Similarly, costume designer Ann Closs-Farley has embraced the Bedazzler and her spectacularly garish costumes should be de rigueur for Halloween 2011.
Now add to THAT the electric excitement of live theater. While it may be fun to shout along with the show’s characters in your home each time the secret word is heard, it is absolutely thrilling to holler along with hundreds of grinning fans in the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. It’s deliciously naughty of director Alex Timbers to encourage this behavior, which flies in the face of the accepted etiquette that you not open a noisy candy wrapper — much less scream — in a theater. Pee-wee’s audience enthusiastically embraces this license to exuberantly interact with the cast.
Speaking of manners, the multimedia, vaudeville-esque stage show continues the series’s traditions of prominently featuring animation, a wide variety of puppets — by artist Basil Twist, and unspooling a reel of now-ludicrous vintage film — in this case, about how to behave properly in school.
The stage show incorporates nods to TV commercials old (Chia Pets, anyone?) and new (ShamWow and Bumpits). This material does get the laughs, but it also subversively serves as a reminder of just how well “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” holds up in 2010 and how necessary it is to share Reubens’s still-relevant comic genius with the next generation.
Amidst all of the double entendres and nudge-nudge pop culture references, the show — written by Reubens and Bill Steinkellner — offers up an authentically affecting story line: Pee-wee unrealistically hopes to fly like his friend Pterri the Pterodactyl. In addition to Pterri, Pee-wee reunites with many of our favorite characters from the ground-breaking children’s show, such as Cowboy Curtis (played here by Phil LaMarr) and Chairry (the talking wing chair). Fans are ecstatic to see a couple of the series’s actors in the Broadway cast. Just as Pee-wee prefers his yarn-linked soup cans to Wi-Fi, the show’s producers have wisely chosen to stay loyal to those seasoned ensemble members. In addition to Reubens as Pee-wee, Lynne Marie Stewart reprises the role of Miss Yvonne — the most beautiful woman in cartoon land — and the riveting John Paragon pulls off the role of Jambi the Genie just by employing all of the talent in his disembodied head. (In fact, several of the actors are original to the stage show of the same name which debuted at the Groundlings Theatre in 1981.)
Pee-wee prefers interacting with his long-time friends Conky the robot (Josh Meyers) and Magic Screen — which is akin to a talking Etch-A-Sketch — to the joys of the newfangled computer. And I have to agree. I was thrilled to leave the technology at home and take my son’s small hand in mine while enjoying this live version of “Pee-wee.”
Lisa J. Curtis is a freelance writer and editor based in Staten Island.
“The Pee-wee Herman Show” is performed at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre (124 West 43rd Street in Manhattan) now through Jan. 2, 2011. Performances are Tuesdays at 7 pm, Wednesday through Friday at 8 pm, Saturday at 2 pm and 8 pm and Sunday at 2 pm and 7 pm. Tickets are $67-$122. Check www.peewee.com/broadway for changes in the schedule during holiday weeks.
