It should come as no surprise to
anyone that The Pee Wee Herman Show at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre (and there’s a juxtaposition for you!) is
essentially an episode of writer-creator-performer Paul Reubens’ famous Saturday morning kids’ show (with sly adult
appeal). Miss Yvonne, the King of Cartoons, Jambi the Genie, Chairy (the
anthropomorphized chair), Globie (the anthropomorphized—well, you get it)
and all the familiar others of similar surreal ilk are there to do their thing
precisely as they did it on television, with Pee Wee (Reubens, of course) the
gawky, nasal-voiced, perpetual adolescent as emcee.
What
may come as a surprise is that there’s
virtually nothing meaningful in the way of theatrical expansion. A few jokes
are a little more risqué, but
more in the way of faking out the adults (ha-ha, you thought we meant
something naughty, but really we meant something silly, now aren’t you ashamed of yourself?) which would seem to be part of the FUN (scream
here; yes, that’s the secret word), but that aside, there’s nothing you wouldn’t have seen on an episode of Pee
Wee’s Playhouse, not even an expanded or
overarching storyline. This is simply a bigger than average episode—90
minutes worth—done live, with puppets and shamelessly low tek and
transparent SFX. Fangeek heaven. As for theatre geeks…well, let’s put it this
way: you simply cannot fault the packaging, The Pee Wee Herman Show is everything it’s always been, everything you expect
it to be, and if you’re not in the loop, go to YouTube and check out the Pee
Wee’s Playhouse clips and you’ll either get
the idea or TMI, depending on your sensibility.
Me?
Up to a point I think Pee Wee and his universe are mad, brilliant
creations—but a little goes a long way, and a “22 minute half hour” is
plenty. So, you know, to each his Mik-a-lik-a-hi, Mik-a-heinie-ho…