Tots and parents are ready to wiggle

It was B.Y.O.B. to the sold-out, wild and rockin’ concert at the Long Beach Terrace Theater this weekend. And security didn’t bat an eye.

Not surprisingly. Milk, juice and water were the beverages of choice, and the screaming, waving, lap-sitting, aisle-dancing fans attending the first of four concerts at the Terrace -- all sold out -- were toddlers and preschoolers, who spent their time before the show hopping with excitement. No, they weren’t going ga-ga over Raffi. Or Barney. They were there to see the hottest thing in live children’s entertainment: the Wiggles, the Australian phenomenon that is selling CDs, DVDs and videos by the millions, and packing 3,000-seat concert venues everywhere.

To be at a Wiggles concert is to enter a jaw-dropping (for adults) alternate reality in which the troubled real world fades in the noisy but gentle glow of four clean-cut middle-aged singer-musicians, who smile a lot, seem to mean it and burn off a week’s worth of calories singing, dancing and leaping about. They’re joined by a youthful, four-member chorus and a motley crew of costumed characters -- Wags the Dog, Dorothy the Dinosaur, Henry Octopus and Captain Feathersword (who offers the only adult-geared material: hilarious impressions of Elvis, Mick Jagger, Cher, Ozzy Osbourne and Placido Domingo singing, “Quack, Quack, Cock-a-doodle-doo”).

Veterans of Wiggles concerts bring scores of floral tributes for shy Dorothy, which are collected by cast members to the roaring delight of fans, who also hold up hand-lettered signs that announce birthdays or just plain adoration -- “We Love You, Wiggles” -- for “Red Wiggle” Murray Cook to read.

The clued-in audience also lustily shouts out, “Wake up, Jeff!,” whenever “Purple Wiggle” Jeff Fatt pretends to fall asleep midsong.

(Each Wiggle is identified by the color of his shirt: Anthony Field is the “Blue Wiggle,” lead singer Greg Page is the “Yellow Wiggle.” Page, however, has left the tour temporarily, due to the death of his mother-in-law, and won’t rejoin the group until after its Southern California concerts. His strong replacement, Sam Moran, doesn’t miss a beat.)

That beat is as infectious as the lively songs are silly, and numbers about “wobbly” camels, moving like an emu or doing the “Hot Potato, Cold Spaghetti, Mashed Banana” and the “Hoop-de-doo” polka make some adults, especially moms, bop along, even if their stunned toddlers are sitting in wide-eyed silence. Michelle Dickinson, of Manhattan Beach, who attended with her preschooler, knew all the lyrics. “It’s the only CD we have in the car,” she said.

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The Wiggles

Where: Universal Amphitheatre, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City

When: Monday, 2 p.m.; Tuesday, 7 p.m.

Price: $19 to $34; sold out

Running time: 90 minutes

Contact: (818) 777-3931, (213) 480-3232

Also

Where: Arlington Theatre, 1317 State St., Santa Barbara

When: Wednesday, 4 and 7 p.m.

Price: $15 to $25

Contact: (805) 963-4408