Big Pee-wee comeback?

The star may be Pee-wee, but his new live stage show is absolutely huge.

“The Pee-wee Herman Show,” opening Jan. 12 in Los Angeles, cost millions to mount. It boasts 11 actors, 20 puppets and marks the show’s first production since 1982.

So, why now?

“Well, you know, I really want to make a movie version of ‘The Playhouse,’ my Saturday morning kid show,” Paul Reubens, 57, said in an interview in which he stayed in his exuberant Pee-wee persona.

“This seemed like a great way to do it: Reintroduce it, get back out there, introduce Pee-wee to the new generation that didn’t know about it.”

An impulsive, sometimes naughty child living in a fantastical world, Pee-wee first made a big splash with the live “The Pee-wee Herman Show,” which debuted at Groundlings theater in L.A. in 1981.

An HBO broadcast spread the Pee-wee gospel across the country later that year. Tim Burton’s 1985 feature film “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” was a critical and popular success.

Then came the television series “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” which ran for five seasons (1986-’91), earned 22 Emmys and attracted not only children but adults to Saturday-morning television.

Pee-wee was shelved after Reubens’ July 1991 arrest for indecent exposure in an adult-movie house. Reubens continued to act, scoring successes as the Penguin’s father in “Batman Returns” (1992) and a 1995 Emmy nomination for a recurring guest role on “Murphy Brown.”

But Pee-wee would ultimately rise again.

“Well, I went back and forth between wanting to do it and not wanting to do (the new stage show),” Reubens said.

“I had a producer that was calling me every two months for two years. And every two months, I would change my mind. And then, finally, one day I woke up and decided, ‘This is it, I’m coming back.’ ”

The menagerie of “Playhouse” characters is back, as are some original cast members, including Lynne Stewart as Miss Yvonne, John Moody as Mailman Mike and John Paragon as Jambi the Genie.

“I think I am grateful for my friends,” Reubens said. “I am grateful for my fans. I am grateful that people still support me.

“I am grateful that people are going to buy tickets to come see my fabulous, fantastic, unbelievably incredible show.”

The birthday bunch

Actor John Amos is 70. Actor Gerard Depardieu is 61. Singer Karla Bonoff is 58. Actress Tovah Feldshuh is 57. Actor Ian Gomez (“Felicity,” “The Drew Carey Show”) is 45. Actress Eva LaRue is 43. Actor Wilson Cruz (“My So-Called Life”) is 36. Actor Masi Oka is 35. Actress Emilie de Ravin is 28. Singer Hayley Williams (Paramore) is 21.