It's a Wiggly world
Published Tuesday April 14th, 2009
Dorothy the Dinosaur, Captain Feathersword, Henry the Octopus, Wags the Dog and friends are coming to Fredericton
While many prehistoric dinosaurs were ferocious and scary, this modern-day dinosaur is funny and she sings.
Dorothy the Dinosaur is coming to town. If you have children or grandchildren, you're likely very familiar with the dinosaur who loves to eat roses, drink rosy tea and dance and sing.
This dinosaur from Down Under, along with her friends, Wags the Dog, Henry the Octopus, Captain Feathersword, Fairy Clare and Fairy Larissa are bringing their dance party to town as they perform at The Playhouse on Wednesday, April 15.
At 9 p.m. the telephone rings. It's a call from Australia and Brad Carroll, who plays Captain Feathersword in this stage show. With 11 hours time difference, it's 10 a.m. Thursday morning there and Carroll is packing his suitcase and preparing himself for the 25-hour flight to Canada he and the rest of the show's cast will make on Saturday. It takes a while to adjust to the time change and the jet lag.
"We get in Saturday night in Halifax. We're (in Canada) for five weeks. We've got 20 locations. We could do two or three in every venue depending on ticket sales. It can be tiring especially when you haven't done a tour for quite some time. Your first show can be quite exhausting. The second or third day it kind of hits us."
But by the time they appear at The Playhouse, Carroll says the cast and crew should be in fine form and even if they are still struggling with fatigue, he says, the excitement of the audience, which is mostly the one- to six-year-old crowd and their parents, always gives them a huge adrenaline rush.
"The opening song starts and Dorothy runs out. The reaction is massive. They raise the roof. All the kids are screaming and shouting. The parents sometimes can be louder than the kids. The show gives the parents a chance to be kids again."
Anyone who has seen the hit children's TV show The Wiggles will be familiar with Dorothy the Dinosaur and the rest of the stage show's cast of characters. This is a show fit for the whole family, he says.
The Wiggles started in show business in Australia 20 years ago. Carroll, who is now 25, would have been a kindergarten kid at the time. But he says he didn't really become aware of the children's performers and the show's characters until they became an international sensation back in 1998. At the time he was a teen and not much into the children's TV program. But now he is, he says, and he says it's so much fun to get to sing and dance and to allow his inner child to come out and play every day.
This is Carroll's second trip to Canada. Last year he was here with the Wiggles as one of the show's Wiggly Dancers. Carroll has a starring role in an Australian children's TV show about nursery rhymes called The Kingdom of Paramithi. The show's first 30 half-hour episodes are receiving great reviews and there is now talk of a second season.
Carroll says that show might soon be coming to North American TV. When he's not filming the Kingdom of Paramithi, he's doing this stage show.
While he loves the new experience of filming this TV show, he says he loves performing in front of a live audience. He's played Captain Feathersword since last June, which his niece and nephew think is a very cool thing. So does he, says.
"There's a lot of dancing and singing. Captain Feathersword's favourite is the song, Quack, Quack because it allows him to be a duck.
"He's very out there. He really is a young silly boy at heart. I love performing as him because I get to perform as me and be a silly young boy, too. Singing in front of a live audience is my favourite thing to do."
This 50-minute interactive show encourages everyone in the audience to dance and sing along. It features songs written and recorded by Blue Wiggle, Anthony Field, including Dr. Knickerbocker, Come On Let's Jump!, Let's Have A Party, Romp Bomp A Stomp, To Have A Tea Party and Balla, Balla Bambina.
In this show Don the Postman is supposed to deliver a tea party invitation to Dorothy the Dinosaur. Problems happen when the letter falls into Captain Feathersword's hands who then gets sidetracked when he sees Wags the Dog.
"He leaves the letter with Wags who also gets sidetracked and so on and so on."
While most pirates are viewed to be mean and scary, Captain Feathersword is quite possibly the silliest, most friendly pirate you will ever have the good fortune to meet.
Dorothy is the gentlest and most loving dinosaur, Wags is a happy dog who likes to run around and dig. Don the Postman and Henry the Octopus are really fun and friendly too.
When he puts on the pirate costume, Carroll is Captain Feathersword. But when he is off stage and dressed in jeans and a T-shirt no one recognizes him, he says.
When the Canadian tour is over, Carroll and the rest of the cast will tour Australia and New Zealand for a year. Carroll says there's nothing better than being paid to tour the world with this show.
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