John, The Wiggles are actually pretty wholesome — not much of the spandex thing … just ordinary pull-over sweatshirts in four different colors. We’ve taken Edward (now age 4) to two shows, and he’s nuts for them. Greg will be handing the yellow jersey to another brown-haired, slightly plump Aussie named Sam Moran, a former opera singer (who will now, instead, pull down about 10-mil a year crooning “Toot, toot, chuga, chuga Big Red Car …,” etc.). We saw them at the Madison Square Garden Theater a few weeks back. When it was announced that Greg was sick and couldn’t perform but would be replaced by Sam, then his stand-in, there was some brief groaning … but then the show started and the kids loved it all the same.
Interesting thing, the Times article is right in noting that the parents (especially the moms) seem more upset about Greg’s absence than the kids. But, in any event, I’m glad my son discovered them. It was a nice intro for a 2-year-old into music, the fellas just seem like four nice guys you could probably have a beer with, and they don’t seem to have changed much in the 15 years they’ve apparently been at this. (My older son is 20, so I missed this phenomenon the first time around. In that connection, I’ve gotta say this is a lot better than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which I dreaded during my older guy’s childhood.)