Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway Blu-ray Movie Review

Sondheim Never Had Follies Like These

Reviewed by Michael Reuben November 20, 2011

Released to accompany the appearance of Pee-wee's Big Adventure on Blu-ray, HBO's recording of Pee-wee Herman's hugely successful sojourn on the Great White Way is a colorful exercise in nostalgia for anyone who grew up (or took a short break from adulthood) watching Pee-wee's Playhouse in its four-year run from 1986-1990. Certainly every time the camera pans over the audience, the delighted smiles on the faces of the young adult crowd say that the show successfully tapped into the inner child of people young enough to have shared their childhoods with Paul Reubens' Pee-wee character, but now old enough to afford the $120 price of a Broadway ticket. Eyebrows were raised among Broadway traditionalists when it was first announced that Reubens was bringing Pee-wee to the newly rechristened Stephen Sondheim Theatre on West 43rd Street, but in retrospect it was the perfect locale. In its previous incarnations, the theater had seen heavy-duty drama from major playwrights, burlesque, porno, the long-running revival of Cabaret, Mandy Patinkin singing his life story and, most recently, a chirpy revival of Bye Bye, Birdie. About the only thing it hadn't seen was a kids' show that's strictly for adults.

Reubens starts the show by coming out immediately in character as Pee-wee. As he explains in the commentary, he hates it when shows are stopped by applause greeting the star's entrance; so he wanted to get it out of the way. Then he has everyone join him in a mock pledge of allegiance, because (and again, I'm taking this from the commentary) it's the best way to regress everyone back to childhood. Finally, the curtain parts to reveal the elaborate playhouse set, filled with familiar objects and characters.

The following hour and twenty minutes has a frenetic "greatest hits" quality that's clearly targeted at long-time fans but can also be appreciated by newcomers, assuming they're dialed in to the peculiar blend of maturely immature humor that Reubens has concocted for his aging audience. (When a ShamWow! suddenly descends from the rafters and starts doing a parody of the late-night commercial, you needs a grown-up's sensibility to enjoy the joke fully.) To give the show some degree of structure, there are a few running plot lines, at least some of which will be familiar. In one routine, Pee-wee's friend Sergio keeps popping up in unexpected places, because he's rewiring the playhouse to prepare for the arrival of Pee-wee's first computer. Many of the mechanical inhabitants, especially Magic Screen, are appalled at the prospect of being replaced by this contemporary interloper, but they needn't worry. When the miraculous device arrives, it's no PC or Mac, but the kind of tape-driven clunker IBM used to make. And the minute Pee-wee gets connected to the internet, the difference between social networking and the true friendship of the playhouse clan becomes immediately apparent.

There's also the longstanding romantic pursuit of Cowboy Curtis by Miss Yvonne, the Most Beautiful Woman in Puppetland (also the only woman in Puppetland). The course of true love may never run smooth, but it does run, and eventually it reaches a happy conclusion. But that conclusion is bound up with another plotline, which is Pee-wee's life-long dream of flying. Pterry, the pterodactyl, routinely tantalizes Pee-wee by rhapsodizing over the joys of flight, so that when, late in the show, Jambi the Genie grants Pee-wee a sole wish, there's no question what he'll ask for. Things get complicated, though, and you'll have to see it for yourself if you want to know the rest.

Interspersed among these silly stories are numerous equally silly bits of business including a storybook reading, a cartoon about a girl named Penny (who has pennies for eyes), Pee-wee cooking onion rings and teaching fire safety, a 1950s film about proper deportment and a visit from the King of Cartoons. The show was tautly directed by Alex Timbers to leave not a second of dead air (and Timbers' achievement is all the more impressive if you know that he was simultaneously overseeing the original musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson a few blocks away). When the audience rises to their feet at the curtain call, everyone on both sides of the footlights looks happy and fulfilled.

The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Image's 1080i, AVC-encoded Blu-ray of the hi-definition video source is sharp, clean and clear, with deep blacks, bright colors and no video noise. This is a recent production that was obviously captured with first-rate equipment. The camera placements were well-chosen, and the editing is minimally intrusive, although it does deprive you of an audience member's freedom of choosing where to look. Despite the interlaced format, there were no obvious combing artifacts, nor were there any of the lens flares or other lighting anomalies that sometimes occur when live performances are captured for HD. A BD-25 was sufficient to contain the program without compression artifacts.

The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The sound is presented as PCM 2.0, and although one might wish for the more immersive quality of a 5.1 mix, the fact that this is primarily a vocal performance means that there would be little in which to "immerse" the viewer other than the audience's laughter and applause -- something the 2.0 mix does sufficiently well when played through a surround decoder. The 2.0 track renders the various character voices with great clarity and dynamic range and should satisfy any listener's ear.

The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Paul Reubens and Cast: The commentary is preceded by a two-minute introduction (in standard definition) in which the participants introduce themselves, accompanied by still photographs of their most recognizable characters (since many of them voiced multiple parts). They include:
  
  
  • Paul Reubens (Pee-wee)
  • Lynne Marie Stewart (Miss Yvonne)
  • Drew Powell (the Bear, Mr. Window, voice of one of the flowers)
  • John Moody (Mailman Mike)
  • John Paragon (Jambi the Genie, voice of Pterry; also a writer)
  • Josh Meyers (Firefighter Phineus; voices of Conkie, Clocky, Randy, ShamWow!, one of the fish, one of the flowers; also a contributing writer)
  • Jesse Garcia (Sergio)
  • Phil LaMarr (Cowboy Curtis)
  • Lexy Fridell (voices of Chairry, Magic Screen, Ginger the Horse, one of the fish and one of the flowers; the only actor never seen on stage until the curtain call -- and yes, she really does sound like that!)
  • Lance Roberts (Knucklehead, one of the flowers, Globie, the King of Cartoons)
  
  
  The commentary is something of a reunion, since the show had closed by the time the actors reassembled, and the participants are clearly having fun recalling all the fun they had. They point out which bits are new and which ones echo the old Pee-wee's Playhouse, reminisce about backstage routines (like Miss Yvonne's cheering squad that sent her out for her grand entrance each night) and mishaps (like the time Magic Screen malfunctioned and Reubens had to carry it off-stage), and remind each other about specific notable performances. They also talk about audience reactions, including which lines got the biggest laughs.
  
  At the conclusion, there's an additional audio segment (length: 3:33) set against a black screen, with additional thanks and acknowledgments and a quick re-enactment of the peculiar backstage ritual (a kind of group chant) with which the cast began each show.

The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Although you can't tell from the show itself, the commentary reveals that Harry Potter himself, a/k/a Daniel Radcliffe, was in the audience during the performance being taped, and the presence of this former child star puts an interesting hall-of-mirrors perspective on the show. Radcliffe was in town to begin rehearsals for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, the latest step in his bid to move beyond boy wizard into adult success -- and yet here he was, taking a few hours off to regress to childish delight with a visibly aging Reubens playing the same eternal man-child fans have known and loved for over thirty years. Who's the kid and who's the grown-up? The secret of Pee-wee Herman's character is that he makes people not care about the difference. Highly recommended for fans, because it's a lot cheaper than Broadway and you won't have to fight the crowds in Times Square.