“Pee-wee” flies back onto LA stage
By Jennifer Bastien
Jan. 11, 2010 10:11 p.m.
Revivals often offer a pleasant sense of nostalgia, from the Spice Girls reunion tour to the rebirth of shows like “Melrose Place,” and now, Pee-wee Herman’s live stage show.
“You probably can’t see this from here, but our microphones all say Grammy Museum on them. Not to name drop,” joked Paul Reubens, the actor who created and plays the fictitious character Pee-wee Herman, and who was in character during the interview. Thus began the press conference for his upcoming “The Pee-wee Herman Show” at Club Nokia at L.A. Live.
The show, running for a limited four-week engagement Jan. 12 ““ Feb. 7 is reminiscent of his original “The Pee-wee Herman Show” at the Roxy Theatre which debuted in 1981. The new version also includes many of the familiar characters from “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” the television show which premiered in 1986.
Picking up where he left off, Herman spends this 90-minute show attempting to achieve his lifelong dream of flying. While Herman will still be wearing his signature gray suit and red bow-tie, the show has been updated with new characters, new puppets and a new story line. Along with Herman’s new Spanish tutor Sergio, and puppets ShamWow and PayPal, Herman admits another difference with this show: the budget.
“The original show was done on a shoe-string budget ““ I borrowed $5,000 from my parents,” Herman said. “So this time we have a real budget and real people doing everything, unbelievably talented people. It’s just like professional, like really professional.”
Among them, Reubens himself is by no means the least talented, as reflected in the high praise of his colleagues. Lead producer Scott Sanders (“The Color Purple”), director Alex Timbers and costume designer Ann Closs-Farley all expressed surprise at the breadth of the actor’s comedic and artistic genius.
“Paul (Reubens) is really an extraordinary comedian,” Timbers said. “I always saw him as that one character, so I didn’t really think of him this way, but he’s actually really, really talented. He is always finding new bits and adding new stuff and taking the best from what the room has to offer.”
When Reubens first came to producer Scott Sanders a few months ago with an idea for this show, Sanders was immediately excited about working with Reubens again, and he continues to be impressed with the actor’s professionalism.
“When we have a production issue, trying to make something work, trying to figure out how to move all these things in and out of a 90-minute show, I’ve been surprised with how smart (Reubens) is about how to make things happen,” Sanders said. “He really has the brain of a writer, an actor, a director, an art designer.”
And while Reubens and “The Pee-wee Herman Show” team are very focused on this production at Club Nokia, there are inklings of a complete Pee-wee Herman comeback ““ perhaps even a new Pee-wee movie.
“Pee-wee has made it clear that he wants to focus on Los Angeles, but I’m crossing all my fingers that he decides to take it elsewhere because I know there are fans all over the place,” Sanders said.
With the extensive following that Pee-wee has, however, comes an extra challenge for this new production ““ updating such a classic and well-loved character without upsetting the fan base while remaining true to the actor’s long tradition. Luckily, Reubens has been receptive about making changes and updating the show.
“He is in many ways a protector of the mythology, and my job is to push him in new directions,” Timbers said. “And Paul has been fantastic about re-investigating everything.”
Having lived with this character for 30 years, some of that time even primarily as the character himself, if anyone knows how to remain true to Pee-wee, it’s Reubens himself. So if anyone’s worried about the reinvention of this classic, in the eloquent words of Pee-wee:
“It’s going to be really, really good, I swear. Nobody’s going to think it’s not really good.”
