Wiggles’ Dorothy the Dinosaur in Live Stage Show

One of the stars of children’s television programme The Wiggles is continuing to tour venues across the UK in a live musical stage show aimed for kids.

The new Dorothy the Dinosaur Show will visit New Brighton’s Floral Pavilion this month, before a trip to Lancaster’s Grand Theatre in May. The Wiggles, originally a children’s musical group formed in Sydney, Australia, in 1991, have achieved phenomenal world-wide success including a popular series on kids channel Nick Jr and have reportedly earned forty five million Australian dollars.

Original member Anthony Field, who dresses in a blue shirt so he’s easily identifiable for children, has written the live stage show. “My three children adore Dorothy the Dinosaur, so I wanted to put together a concert that reflected the high quality of the TV show that they love,” he said.

Field and fellow member of the The Wiggles, Jeff Fatt, were originally in the Australian pop band The Cockroaches during the eighties. Whilst studying to become pre-school teacher, Field met Greg Page, who he recorded an album with and went on tour with in the early nineties. This led to Fatt, Murray Cook, and Phillip Wilcher joining the pair and forming The Wiggles, a group creating music targeted towards child development. After their first album was released, Wilcher left the group and in 2006 Page was replaced by Sam Moran due to illness. The Wiggles grew in popularity and became known for the characters that joined them on tour, known as ‘The Wiggly dancers’.

Last year they celebrated their eighteenth year together and have had 27 video and DVD releases, as well as being awarded with 17 gold, 12 platinum, three double platinum and ten multi-platinum awards for sales of over 23 million DVD’s and seven million CD’s world-wide.

Their live shows attract hundreds of thousands of fans worldwide and in 2003 they performed 12 sold out shows at Madison Square Garden in New York and performed to over 250,000 people in November 2005 alone. In May last year they recorded a single with Australian pop legend Kylie Minogue.

The nationwide tour of The Dorothy the Dinosaur Show started in July last year and although The Wiggles do not make an appearance, several other familiar characters – the Wiggly dancers – feature including Captain Feathersword, Wags the Dog and Henry the Octopus.

Graham Kennedy, senior manager of live events for The Wiggles, added: “The Dorothy show has been touring Australia to sell out audiences for many years and has been instrumental in making Dorothy the star that she is. This year Dorothy and her friends commenced touring Canada and the response has been overwhelming. We’re delighted to be bringing the Dorothy show to the UK as it gives children everywhere across the country the opportunity to have a Wiggly experience.”

The show features music, dance and many of the known songs associated to Dorothy plus a storyline aimed for toddlers. The Dorothy the Dinosaur Show arrives to the Floral Pavilion on Sunday 21 March, 2.30pm. Following its visit to Wirral, the show will then appear at the Grand Theatre in Lancaster on Monday 31 May.