Paul Reubens — creator and star of Pee-wee’s Playhouse and three Pee-wee Herman films — is going out on tour to celebrate the 35th anniversary of his 1985 breakout movie as Pee-wee, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.
Each tour date will be accompanied by a screening of the film — which marked the directorial debut for Tim Burton and the first major motion picture credit for composer Danny Elfman — followed by live behind-the-scenes stories from Reubens.
The 20-city outing kicks off February 14th in Portland, Oregon, and runs through March 29th with a final show in Washington, DC.
Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Friday, December 13th at 10:00 a.m. local time.
In 2016, Netflix released the most recent Pee-wee film, Pee-wee’s Big Holiday. In a Q&A following a screening of the film at the 92nd Street Y, Reubens revealed that he had had to change the entire plot of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure shortly before filming began.
“I was writing a remake of [the 1960 Disney film] Pollyanna without permission,” he said of the first draft. “Every day, me, [Pee-wee’s Big Adventure writer] Phil Hartman and a producer would take a lunch break and walk to the commissary. As we would walk by, every single person was on a bike and every day, I’d be like, ‘I gotta get a bike.’ One day I came back from lunch and they had bought me a restored Schwinn racer and it was chained up to a post that had a little character of me that said ‘Pee-wee Herman bike parking only.’ And I looked at it and said, ‘I’m writing the wrong movie. We’re doing the wrong thing.’”
He began writing a new draft of the film that very same day.
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure 35th Anniversary Tour Dates
February 14 – Portland, OR @ Newmark Theatre
February 15 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre
February 21 – Denver, CO @ Paramount Theatre
February 22 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kingsbury Hall
February 27 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern
February 28 – San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic
February 29 – San Diego, CA @ Spreckels Theatre
March 5 – San Antonio, TX @ The Aztec Theatre
March 6 – Austin, TX @ ACL Live at the Moody Theater
March 8 – Dallas, TX @ Majestic Theatre
March 12 – Atlanta, GA @ The Tabernacle
March 13 – Tampa, FL @ Tampa Theatre
March 14 – Coral Springs, FL @ Coral Springs Center for the Arts
March 20 – Chicago, IL @ The Chicago Theatre
March 21 – Minneapolis, MN @ State Theatre
March 22 – Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore Detroit
March 26 – New York, NY @ The Beacon Theatre
March 27 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Met Philadelphia
March 28 – Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theater
March 29 – Washington, DC @ Warner Theatre
