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Pee-wee Herman’s zany romp on Broadway makes it to HBO By Jacqueline Cutler © Zap2it It all starts with the voice. Paul Reubens, better known as Pee-wee Herman, created that voice that sounds helium-induced back in his school days. Now it has taken him to an HBO special, “The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway,” airing Saturday, March 19. While driving to an editing room to put the final touches on the special, Reubens recalls creating Pee-wee for a sketch he did with The Groundlings, the improv troupe, in 1977. “The voice came from a play many, many years prior to that,” Reubens says. “I was the second-oldest kid in a repertory production of ‘Life With Father.’ I inadvertently changed from a normal, ac- ceptable voice that would have worked for that show to a cartoony voice that became Pee-wee Herman’s voice.” Since Reubens had not yet finished editing the special, a review copy was not avail- able at this writing. But it’s based on the “The Pee-wee Herman Show,” which ran 80 performances on Broadway late last year and turned the Stephen Sondheim Theatre into his wacky playhouse. The stage show was based on his 1986-91 Saturday morning TV series “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.” It was great fun, and “fun” was his secret word of the Paul Reubens stars in “The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway” Saturday on HBO. day. Each time it was said the audience had to get loud and silly, and it was impossible to sit in that theater and not laugh. Ultimately silly is what it’s about. There’s pretty much no other way to describe the colorful, zany world that is his playhouse. Pee-wee’s pals show up: Cowboy Curtis (Phil LaMarr) in his purple chaps and Jheri curls; Miss Yvonne (Lynne Marie Stewart) in her enormous bouffant; King of Cartoons (Lance Roberts) in his regal garb; and Mailman Mike (John Moody), as angry as ever. 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This show il- lustrates that — me being on Broadway in a show that is being filmed for Home Box Office was almost an impos- sibility a few years ago. “I am a good example of that anything is possible — don’t count anybody out,” he continues. “What I try to achieve in the show is to do something old-fashioned, and it is just pure entertainment. I don’t want to say it is a piece of fluff. It is just there to be fun and funny and make you feel good.” In the play, Pee-wee is about to have his playhouse wired for a computer, and his friends worry that if he goes online he won’t spend much time with them anymore. Some terrific 1950s-era black- and-white school films are shown, and as important as hygiene and etiquette are, the film about being well-man- nered and washing hands frequently is hilarious. The Broadway audience, at least on one night in De- cember, was made up of hipsters who cheered Jambi (John Paragon), and just the sight of Chairry, the big fuzzy blue chair, and Globey, the globe with Mel Brooks’ vis- age, made people happy. “In New York City, we had between 100 and 300 almost every night, waiting in the freezing cold weather 20 or 30 minutes for me to come out at the stage door,” Reubens says. “I was all over New York City one day in the Pee-wee suit. I talked to fans, of all 80 performances, after the show. I have a good feel for how people were reacting.” About that Pee-wee suit — it’s not plain gray as it ap- pears, but glen plaid. Isaac Mizrahi came to see the play and liked the suit, Reubens says. Other famous audience members included Elvis Costello, who went with his wife, jazz singer Diana Krall. Simon and Garfunkel at- tended — though separately, Reubens notes. Prince saw the show, as did David Bowie and his wife, Iman. The theatergoing duo that most intrigued Reubens was Salman Rushdie and Lou Reed. Reubens looks fairly un- changed since the ’80s, still slim and bopping about the stage. Though there are actors who spend their youths prim- ing to be on Broadway, he was not among them. “In a certain way it was probably more extreme than had I been the person my whole life aspiring to this,” he says. As a veteran of TV, Reu- bens thought he was accus- tomed to long hours, but the grind of eight shows a week surprised him. GLASSES • CONTACTS • EYE EXAMS • SUNGLASSES EYEWEAR GALLERY 56028 Parkway Ave., Suite E - Elkhart • 574-970-7444 EXPIRES MARCH 31, 2011 50% OFF * EYE David R. Britzke , O.D. *Offer not valid with insurance or other offers. Does not include contact lens fitting fee. www.drbritzke.com Allergies? Asthma? We Can Help! See us for help with: • Headaches • Sinus Pressure • Congestion • Cough • Shortness of Breath Yatin J. 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Given that Pee-wee has been a part of him for so long but had been retired for a while, why revisit the man-child and his famous “heh-heh” now? “I woke up one day and thought, ‘This is it,’ ” Reubens says. “ ‘This is the time.’ ” 13024 US 20, Middlebury • 574-825-2965 MARCH ALIGNMENT BILL’S COLLISION SPECIAL SERVICE Weblinks It’s not quite on television yet, but actor Kelsey Grammer’s conservative channel Right Network offers original shows, vid- eos and documentaries at www.rightnetwork.com/ Fox Business Network’s Small Business Center offers news stories and links of interest to entrepreneurs and small-busi- ness owners. Click on smallbusiness.foxbusiness.com/in- dex.html The home page of “CNN Newsroom” offers links and stories, able to be filtered by individual news anchors, along with Deborah Ponce, RN, MSN, NP-C Nurse Practitioner Our friendly staff is ready to help you! S PECTRU M EXAM $ 5 9 9 5 Now Accepting Medicare

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