The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway Blu-ray delivers stunning video and solid audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
Subversive humor and childlike wonder based on both Reubens' original stage show, "The Pee-wee Herman Show," and the Emmy-winning Saturday morning TV show, "Pee-wee's Playhouse."
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Fresh off its television premiere on HBO, The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway will street on Blu-ray this fall. A filmed version of the live Broadway stage show, The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway is writer/performer Paul Reubens' first full-length return to ...
The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway Blu-ray Screenshots
