Susan Granger’s review of “The Pee Wee Herman Show” (Stephen Sondheim Theater 2010)
Banished for almost two decades, Paul Reubens, clad in a tight gray suit and trademark red bow tie and beloved to millions as the man-child Pee Wee Herman, is back in his cartoonish, surrealist element. As an inventive performance artist, now 58, he commands the stage from beginning to end, introducing the secret word along with familiar characters from Pee Wee’s Playhouse, a vintage fantasyland that’s been recreated by veteran scenic designer David Korins.
TV’s original Miss Yvonne (Lynne Marie Stewart), Mailman Mike (John Moody) and Jambi the Genii (John Paragon) blend seamlessly with newcomers playing Bear (Drew Powell),, Sergio the Handyman (Jesse Garcia), Firefighter (Josh Meyers), Cowboy Curtis (Phil LaMarr, succeeding Laurence Fishburne who has gone on to bigger things) and King of Cartoons (Lance Roberts) – aided by Basil Twist’s phalanx of puppeteers.
Director Alex Timbers (“Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson”) keeps the sunny, slightly subversive pace fast, deftly choreographing the rapid succession of goofy guests with their wacky routines, and Reubens’ co-writers, Bill Steinkellner and John Paragon, lean heavily on warmly-welcomed 1950s nostalgia, epitomized by an educational film clip about good manners and a disastrous venture into contemporary computerland.
For those who don’t recall, Reubens was arrested in 1991 at a Sarasota, Florida, porn theater for allegedly exposing himself. But that’s all in the past now, unless you count a few snarky innuendos and the introduction of an abstinence ring, which would pass right over the heads of those not in the know. And the Reubens revival continues with a new Pee Wee Herman movie in the works for 2011 with Judd Apatow producing.
Bottom line: A candy-colored childhood delight, a real audience-pleaser – on a limited Broadway run through January 2, 2011.