The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway

The Pee-Wee Herman Show is manic, crazy, and most of all, a whole lot of, ahem, "fun."

It's a long pull that can be fun and funny--and more than a wee bit tedious.

Pee-wee was always a boy-man, but Reubens is pushing 60; when he is flying through the air singing "I'm the luckiest boy in the world" the words "Sunset Boulevard" do come unfortunately to mind. Still, fans of Pee-wee will no doubt delight in a return to those strange and halcyon days before the Wiggles and Blues Clues took over the world, when Barney was still Fred Flintstone's sidekick and not a purple dinosaur and Pee-wee's multi-generational appeal was subversive and unique.

Even lensed for TV, the special isn't wholly satisfying, but for anyone who visited "Pee-wee's Playhouse" in the late '80s, the experience is good enough. As for those who might say dismissing the show at that is snobbish, I know you are, but what am I?

It's a happy mix of childlike wonder and mildly adult humor--too mild for "Two and a Half Men," but maybe too adult for Saturday mornings--that allows Reubens to be timeless and yet topical. But again, only mildly so.

While it seems apparent that seeing the show live would be a hoot, it doesn't translate to television all that well--it just feels shrunken and confined by the medium.

It's mildly amusing, but it comes off as an extended appetizer, not a meal.

While the acting and jokes are still solid, it's clear this particular iteration was meant for the stage.

Without the overwhelming nostalgia for this particular venue for Pee-wee and these supporting characters, I found The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway a long (close to 90 minutes) slog, cute in spots, but mainly just strange--a voyage through the fantasy life of a character I prefer to see fending for himself in a closer approximation of the real world.

Although it is 90 minutes long, it feels much longer, and the truly smart laughs are few.

To my eyes, in the end, those moments still don't make this show worth an hour and a half of a Saturday night. It just has too many giggly jokes about "toilet water." But if you're among those fans who feared a few years ago you'd lost Pee-wee forever, there's no arguing that you now have him back.