“The Pee-Wee Herman Show” at Club Nokia: REVIEW

“The Pee-wee Herman Show” at Club Nokia @ LA Live

I know you are, but what am I?

According to the Los Angeles Times, Paul Rubens created the lovable Pee-wee character at the Groundlings Theater in Los Angeles in 1978. He went on to have a live run at the Roxy Theater on the Sunset Strip in 1982, guest on David Letterman, and appear in movies with Cheech and Chong. He finally graduated to “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” (1985, and Tim Burton’s feature film debut!) and the long-running series “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” on CBS.

Rubens describes his popular spectacle as “a children’s show for adults.”

Which is why his 1991 arrest for “exposure of sexual organs” in an undercover operation at an adult movie theater in Sarasota, FL casts such a long shadow over the rest of his career. After that he became an international punchline. CBS summarily canceled his show, even pulling the reruns from circulation. If you’ve ever had your rerun pulled, you know it affects your circulation.

(Side note: really how bad was his “crime?” Even if he was guilty, what more appropriate place to whip it out than an adult movie theater? If I had a nickel for every time I’ve exposed myself in public…)

Even though Pee-wee got axed for Paul Ruben’s sins, the popularity of the character never faded. According to the live show’s website:

“While ‘The Pee-wee Herman Show’, and ‘Pee-wee’s Playhouse’ were an homage to an earlier generation’s television classics — ‘Howdy Doody,’ ‘The Mickey Mouse Club,’ ‘Captain Kangaroo,’ ‘Kukla, Fran, and Ollie,’ and ‘The Shari Lewis Show’ – Pee-wee himself became one of the most original and beloved stars in all of television history and late-century American culture.”

Which brings us to the four-week revival run “The Pee-wee Herman Show Live on Stage” at Club Nokia @ LA Live which opened last Tuesday, January 12th.

The show is billed “for grown-ups and appropriate for ages 16 to 106″ and sponsored by Bud Light. Ironically Pee-wee’s most famous bit, his “Tequila” dance, appears to have been sponsored by Michelob with the prominent placement of the neon beer ad behind the bar as he struts. I imagine his contract with José Cuervo fell through. This version of the live show is directly adapted from the original stage show that played at the Roxy Theater twenty-eight years ago.

The audience at Club Nokia @ LA Live is a mix of predominantly middle-aged fans (many of them clutching Pee-wee dolls) with a few younger folks thrown in.

At fifty-seven-years-old Rubens is a little slower, and slightly, um, more stiff, but still able to bring the childlike energy to the live stage. Pee-wee’s begelled flat top, slim grey suit, and clip-on bow tie still fit. This production also features favorites from the television show like: Miss Yvonne, Mailman Mike, Cowboy Curtis and Jambi the Genie, as well as Pee-wee’s talking chair, Chairry, Pterri the pterodactyl, Conky the Robot (played by Seth Meyers’ younger brother, Josh Meyers), Magic Screen, and Randy.

There is plenty here for the fans and some pratfalls, too.

Pee-wee starts the show off with the Pledge of Allegiance which instantly brings us all back to school-age.

The set reveal itself received sustained applause and carried the show. Half the fun is seeing the ingeniously staged puppets create live sight-gag after sight-gag. Early-on a giant ball of tinfoil invades the proscenium arch stage left to delighted laughs from the audience. Pee-wee adds his strip of tin to the pile while Chairry delivers the pun, “foiled again, Pee-wee!” Normally a groaner like that would stop the momentum. Here it is just another strip of foil on the tin ball of immature mirth and it keeps rolling.

The other half of the fun is the human characters. Here the performances are uneven. Sergio’s (Jesse Garcia) dancing is forced and awkward but leads to a reprisal of the aforementioned “Tequila” crooked-arm-pumping choreography recognized universally as Pee-wee’s signature move. Later there is an oblique reference to Paul Ruben’s prior panned public performance to knowing titters from the crowd.

Pee-wee’s genius has always been the alchemy of mixing just the right amount of nostalgia with a dash of current pop culture reference so while the milieu looks dated, the material feels fresh. The stage show mines current television infomercials for a talking puppet Sham Wow, an in-show commercial for Bumpits Hair Volumizer, and Flirty Girl Fitness video played straight for laughs. Of course Pee-wee takes a left turn at Albuquerque and (spoiler alert) the Sham Wow puppet accidentally dies, then returns as a ghost Sham Wow. The writing just gets crazier from there. Lest the show get too childlike, there are plenty of dick jokes, a spurned abstinence ring, and a running toilet water gag: “I’m wearing a light toilet water, but it was an accident.”

Rubens has created two original short films as part of the show. The first is a balloon-themed cartoon that leads to a five-minute live musical balloon solo by Pee-wee that is the second most fun you can have with latex.

The second short is a 1950s-style education film about manners that manages to be full of sexual tension and advice about soap at the same time.

Pee-wee and Chairry share a poignant duet about friendship on the way to Pee-wee getting his wish to be able to fly. The clever way Air Pee-wee is depicted is worth the 19-year-wait for the show, and earns Rubens his standing ovation.

The rumor is that this stage outing may lead to interest in another feature film. Perhaps Big Screen Pee-wee may fly again, as well.

Verdict: While there are some Playhouse rough spots, the secret word is: fun.

(http://www.peewee.com)

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-Jason Rohrblogger
www.toptenlog.blogspot.com
(1/13/10)