If the title "Hot Potato" means anything to you, or the Big Red Car, or Captain Feathersword, then you probably have a Wiggles fan in the house. And that fan is about to get some very good news. The world's most successful children's entertainment band — four singing, dancing Aussie blokes in color-coded "skivvies" — has a new touring show, "Racing to the Rainbow Live!," which touches down Friday at San Diego's Cox Arena and at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City on Saturday and Sunday.
No doubt their junior followers will bring roses for flower-loving Dorothy the Dinosaur and bones for Wags the Dog (played by actors in body costumes), yell "Wake up, Jeff!" whenever "sleepy" Purple Wiggle Jeff Fatt nods off, and indulge in some "wobbly" dancing. But this visit from Down Under also will bring a big change: It's the group's first U.S. tour since Yellow Wiggle Greg Page was retired for health reasons and replaced in December by understudy Sam Moran.
"We don't pull the wool over their eyes," Moran said of the audience in a joint phone call with Red Wiggle Murray Cook.
During their stage shows the Wiggles are screening a video, in which Page explains his absence. "Greg gets a chance to say goodbye," Moran said, "and I think the audience feels like it's their opportunity to say goodbye to him as well." (Page suffers from orthostatic intolerance, a chronic condition that is not life-threatening but affects balance and causes fainting and fatigue. "Sometimes he's OK," Cook said, "and sometimes not so good. It's one of those things he's got to learn to manage, and I think it takes awhile.")
As Page's understudy for four years, and as a Wiggles backup singer, character actor and "Wiggly" dancer for nine years, classically trained singer Moran knew his stuff. He even met his wife, South Carolina native Lyn Stuckey, in a Wiggles spinoff show in which she starred as Dorothy the Dinosaur. The pair married in 2006.
Still, the adjustment to "official" Yellow Wiggle could have been a lot tougher if not for the fans, observed Moran, who made his debut during an Australian tour at the end of last year. "Lots of people were holding up signs saying 'Farewell, Greg' and then flipping them over and saying 'Welcome, Sam,' " said Moran, who also will star in a new Wiggles TV series. "It's been really, really heartwarming."
"He's putting his own personality in there and it's been good. We never expected him to become Greg," said Cook.
At 28, he is the youngest member of an otherwise middle-aged group of musicians and early childhood educators (Blue Wiggle Anthony Field makes four). Moran's elevation to Yellow comes 16 years after the Wiggles started out as birthday party entertainers and a warm-up act for the "Barney" stage show.
These days there's a virtual Wiggles universe. Their albums, DVDs and videos have sold multiple millions of copies. There's a Disney Channel Playhouse series and endless merchandising. Non-English-speaking Wiggles franchises have been launched in Asia and South America. "Wiggle World" has been a main draw at Australia's Dreamworld amusement park since opening in 2005. And similar Wiggle attractions — the Big Red Car Ride, Dorothy the Dinosaur's Rosy Teacup Ride and the S.S. Feathersword Pirate Ship — are slated to open in the U.S. in the spring at Six Flags theme parks in New Jersey, Illinois and Massachusetts.
With international fame and the group's annual revenue surpassing those of many a star entertainer in adult fields, what keeps success from swelling the Wiggles' collective heads?
"Our audience," Cook said. "We don't lose sight of the fact that we're playing for children and families. And I think we also keep each other grounded. If one person started getting a big head or acting a bit differently," he laughed, "the others would bring him down pretty quickly."
