BY MIKEY MIGO
This is not a movie. It’s an HBO Broadway special. To be fair I have done “movie reviews” about stand up specials and in rare occasions I’ll allow “special performances” to sneak by. Basically, I wanted to share this one. As a kid I was a huge fan of Pee-Wee Herman. I was at the perfect age for impressionable television and this is what my parents so lovingly stuck me in front of. I never really think too much about the man behind the character getting in his embarrassing troubles. Of course it’s a fun topic to occasionally reference and poke fun at but I remember dressing up like Pee-Wee for Halloween in kindergarten. I remember loving the Pee-Wee action figure. I remember doing the dance. I remember trying to mimic his laugh. I remember wanting his red bike. I remember wanting his world to be my own. I remember watching BOTH movies billions of times. Needless to say, I have fond memories of Pee-Wee Herman. In recent years he has shown up again. And slowly and surely people start to recognize the genius of Pee-Wee once again. There are talks for movies, he makes appearances on talk shows, and he’s getting out there again. People in their mid 20’s to early 30’s can reflect back much like how I am right now about their childhood and just how big of a part Pee-Wee Herman had on it. That’s where this HBO Broadway special comes in. I guess over the past few months or so Pee-Wee has taken his Playhouse to Broadway in the form of a really bad ass stage show production. The old house is there. The chair! The talking flowers! Genie! (Hartman would be proud) The zig-zag door! It’s ALL there. The production here is top notch and is like time travel, it’s so awesome. It’s on HBO and was originally presented in a late night time slot. It had some tongue-in-cheek edginess to it as Pee-Wee always really had, but the show itself was pretty laid back. It was all heart and was pretty damn hilarious. Most of the original actors didn’t come back to reprise their roles. As I said, Phil Hartman is no longer with us and Laurence Fishburn sadly didn’t come back to rock the cowboy attire. Pee Wee doesn’t notice the changes so it’s easy to ignore them as well because as you watch it you lose sense of reality and just absorb yourself into his world. Pee-Wee Herman is a wacky character that makes it cool to enjoy a kid’s show. Other generations got Barney, Teletubbies, Lambchop, Blues Clues, Yo Gabba, etc. Sometimes you just have to be really thankful for what you got. Pee-Wee Herman’s comeback has officially hit the ground running. Put him on the screen already. If he can put a movie half as charming as this Broadway special then he’ll have no problem opening up his Playhouse to a whole new generation. A
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