Orange County Register

“Good morning, boys and girls!”

“Good morning, Pee-wee!!!”

And with that, an overwhelming sense of joyful amazement takes hold of you, for that’s Pee-wee Herman right there, looking like he’d just stepped out of your TV set circa 1987 to appear on stage at Club Nokia.

Truly, for a moment, the thrill was almost electric for until a few months ago, who’d have ever dreamed that actor and creator Paul Reubens would dust off his red bowtie, polish his white loafers, and bring Pee-wee back to a live stage?

Register theater critic Paul Hodgins scored the original assignment – we’re hopeful Missus Pedro will eventually forgive us for not snagging it for ourselves. Still, as Mr. Pop Culture it just wouldn’t do to miss this once-in-a-lifetime chance to see The Pee-wee Herman Show live.

 After all, for years in the late ’80s the last thing we did before falling into bed Friday night was make sure the VCR was set to tape “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse” on Saturday morning for viewing at a later, more sober hour.

And we weren’t alone in that either: Pee-wee always appealed to adults at least as much as kids, partly because the writing and jokes were aimed at older fans as much or more than younger ones, partly because Pee-wee and the show were so refreshingly different from anything else on TV at the time, while also harkening back to the stuff that aired as kiddie TV during our own childhoods in the ’60s. (From the looks of the audience at the matinee Saturday that still holds true: Few kids, many 40-somethings revisting their 20s from the looks of the almost capacity crowd.)

So as four-weeks of “The Pee-wee Herman Show” live at Club Nokia reached its final weekend, we left the kids at home — they’ve seen and like the “Playhouse” DVDs but not as much as mom and dad — and headed for downtown L.A. to check it out. And here is what we can report: If you loved Pee-wee then, you’d love this show today.

Over 90 minutes or so you get all the familiar Pee-wee moments, from the catchphrases (”I know you are, but what am I?”) to the goofy physical comedy (the “Tequila” dance showed up early on) to the laugh and the voice and the mannerisms.

The characters are all there from the TV show, too, with Miss Yvonne and Jambi the genie played by the original actors, while new performers ably take on roles such as Cowboy Curtis, Pterri the pterrodactyl, Chairry the chair, and Conky the robot.

And lots of funny, off-the-wall dialogue, as you’d absolutely expect.

“All I’m wearing is a light toilette water,” Miss Yvonne tells Pee-wee at one point, provoking him into a variety of facial expressions as he tries to figure out how to respond to that information.

“I’m wearing a light toilet water myself,” he replies. “But it was an accident.”

Oh, Pee-wee! How great it is to have you back!

The run wraps up Sunday with two shows, but while the live performances might be over, it’s almost certainly not the last we’ll see of Pee-wee. Plans are reportedly in the works for a third Pee-wee Herman movie, and it would seem almost as likely that the live show will see a DVD release eventually, too.

As for getting this unlikely chance to see the resurrection of Pee-wee Herman, it was truly as if we’d asked for something from deep within our hearts, and then — Mekka lekka hi, mekka hiney ho! — our wish was granted.