Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Editorial: The magic spell of the stage

Roger Moroney
Hawkes Bay Today·
12 Jul, 2014 12:31 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article

The first stage show I attended was an evening with the Napier Frivolity Minstrels at the Municipal Theatre when I was about 7.

So, yes, it was a long time ago but it is an imprinted memory.

I was fascinated by the lights and the colours and the dancing and the singing and the funny man with the funny hat who had everyone laughing in the aisle ...

Vic Viggers was a wonder to behold.

His jokes got the mums and dads chortling and his stumbling and clumsy antics appealed to us smaller members of the audience.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

However, in today's terms, at that age I was a latecomer in tasting the theatre and the bright lights and the colourful costumes for the first time.

Yesterday I watched with delight as an army of mums, and a few dads, converged on that very same theatre armed with their little ones ... and they had some very little ones with them.

Among the audience were 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds, 4-year-olds and some early school year-olds.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

For most of them it was almost certainly their first taste of going into a big, big room with lots of seats and a giant stage with curtains across it.

They were there to see the four happy people who wear colourful clothes and sing happy songs and dance a bit on television.

Except that this was an occasion when the people they had seen on television would be able to see them back.

It was a Wiggles outing.

A well-timed one, too, with the chirpy wigglers staging the show at 10am so that the little ones could be on their way just after 11.

Because the very little ones often rest up in the afternoon.

It was a delight because these children were being introduced to live theatre.

It would have been a tremendously exciting occasion, more so to see the Wiggles in the very same room they were in.

They will have waved, laughed and I daresay some will even have danced in the aisles.

The live stage is a fine place and it has to be healthy and encouraging for little children to get an early taste of theatre.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

They will carry those memories with them for a very long time and some of them will determine that one day they, too, will get up on the stage.

Of course they will all want to be a Wiggle.

It was so good to see the very young tasting something which is very old and has been around for many centuries - the magic spell of the big, bright stage.

Save
    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Firefighters battle motel fire on Napier’s Marine Parade

23 Sep 09:58 AM
Hawkes Bay Today

Ross Shield: Defending champions Napier held to first-day draw

23 Sep 05:04 AM
Hawkes Bay Today

Collaboration and conversation: Performing Arts Exchange coming to Hastings

23 Sep 02:26 AM

Sponsored

Poor sight leaving kids vulnerable

22 Sep 01:23 AM
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Firefighters battle motel fire on Napier’s Marine Parade
Hawkes Bay Today

Firefighters battle motel fire on Napier’s Marine Parade

Many of the motel occupants evacuated onto the street during the blaze.

23 Sep 09:58 AM
Ross Shield: Defending champions Napier held to first-day draw
Hawkes Bay Today

Ross Shield: Defending champions Napier held to first-day draw

23 Sep 05:04 AM
Collaboration and conversation: Performing Arts Exchange coming to Hastings
Hawkes Bay Today

Collaboration and conversation: Performing Arts Exchange coming to Hastings

23 Sep 02:26 AM


Poor sight leaving kids vulnerable
Sponsored

Poor sight leaving kids vulnerable

22 Sep 01:23 AM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP