The SECRET WORD is FUN! Live onstage in Hollywood, "The Pee-wee Herman Show," starring Paul Reubens, will have a limited engagement beginning November 8, 2009, at The Music Box @ Fonda. Press opening is Thursday, November 19, 2009.
Tickets go on sale Tuesday, August 11 at 8 am at all Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com and by phone at 800-745-3000.
"It's time," said Reubens in a statement. "My Pee-wee suit and red bow tie are at the ready - and this is proof that white shoes are cool past Labor Day."
To the generation that grew up with his groundbreaking Saturday morning television show, Pee-wee Herman is an icon. Revered by media theorists and studied in colleges, his enormous cultural influence continues to reverberate in fashion, film and television. When asked to comment, Herman himself simply said, "I know you are, but what am I?!"
This new version of "The Pee-wee Herman Show," still about a wish, includes Miss Yvonne, Mailman Mike, Cowboy Curtis and Jambi the Genie, as well as Pee-wee's talking chair, Chairry, Pterri the pterodactyl, robot Conky, Magic Screen, Randy, and many more.
Many of the show's original artists, both on stage and behind the scenes are involved in this re-imagined production.
The original "The Pee-wee Herman Show" debuted at The Groundlings Theatre in 1981, then moved to the Roxy Theatre on Sunset Strip for five sold out months. Taped as part of HBO's On Location series, the show catapulted Pee-wee into the national consciousness. It lead to Pee-wee's many appearances on "Late Night With David Letterman," followed by a 22 city tour that included Carnegie Hall. In 1985, Warner Brothers brought Pee-wee to the big screen with "Pee-wee's Big Adventure," Tim Burton's feature film debut. Co-written by Reubens, it featured Danny Elfman's first original film score.
The CBS television series "Pee-wee's Playhouse," premiered in 1986. During its five seasons, the show garnered 22 Emmy Awards. Pee-wee's second film, "Big Top Pee-wee" was released in 1988. While "The Pee-wee Herman Show", and "Pee-wee's Playhouse" were an homage to an earlier generation's television classics -- "Howdy Doody," "The Mickey Mouse Club," "Captain Kangaroo," "Kukla, Fran, and Ollie," and "The Shari Lewis Show" -- Pee-wee himself became one of the most original and beloved stars in all of television history and late-century American culture.
By the late 90s, even fashion was not immune to the style of Pee-wee as fashion designers like Christopher Bailey, Ennio Capasa, Miuccia Prada, Viktor & Rolf, and Thom Browne imitated the high armholes, short inseams, and tight cut suits that Pee-wee made as his trademark. In 2007, Nike created a version of the Nike SB sneaker loosely inspired by Pee-wee. 
When Cartoon Network aired the series in 2006, 1.5 million viewers watched every night; the next year TV Guide named the "Playhouse" among the top 10 cult classics of all time. All of the episodes of "Pee-wee's Playhouse" have been issued on DVD (and iTunes) and are consistently best sellers. And as Pee-wee was influenced by the television classics that came before him, it is hard to imagine that "Blue's Clues" or "SpongeBob Square Pants" would be quite the same without him.
The New York Times wrote in 2007, "To a public that remembers him with intense affection, Pee-wee is indelible."
Joyce Millman, writing for salon.com about the DVD box-set launch, said that "Pee-wee is still a wonder to behold. ‘Pee-wee's Playhouse' is utterly timeless. When Pee-wee starts cutting up to the calliope bounce of the theme song, you know in an instant that innocence lost is often just misplaced and despite everything, you can go home again."
Robert Osborne, in the Hollywood Reporter, on the original production of "The Pee-wee Herman Show," "Anyone who deliberately avoids the pleasure of seeing ‘The Pee-wee Herman Show' would probably be willing to go through life without Christmas, cornbread, Häagen-Dazs and puppies."
"The Pee-wee Herman Show" is produced by Jared Geller and David J. Foster.
