Daniel Boud, David Hooley, Yianni Aspradakis.
With three decades of performing under his belt. You’d imagine the original Yellow Wiggle, Greg Page, would be able to shrug off stage nerves.
But stepping into the unknown by playing the role of US president Franklin D Roosevelt in a new stage production of the much-loved musical Annie left the 53-year-old star “extremely nervous”.
He tells Woman’s Day, “I’ve done many rehearsals with the band over the years, but this was different. I’m nowhere near as good a performer and singer as musical theatre people – they have incredible voices. While I’ve made a career out of that, I sing in a very different way.”
Now on in Sydney, before travelling to Melbourne and Brisbane later this year. Annie is Greg’s first-ever stage musical, but he says his nerves melted away after a little coaching from his veteran co-star Anthony Warlow, who plays Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks.
“He’s been so encouraging and nurturing,” tells the kids’ entertainer, adding that his three months on the stage so far have been “fantastic and wonderful” and that if he was offered a chance in the future to star in another musical, he’d “give it a red-hot go”.
But while his timetable’s now busy until 2026, after that, Greg’s eyeing a return to his Wiggle roots – if the other original band members, Jeff Fatt, Murray Cook and Anthony Field, are keen.
Says Greg, “I’m certainly open to another tour. I know a lot of people have been asking. People can start up a petition! But I know the current Wiggles are so busy that Anthony probably hasn’t got time.”
While Anthony’s the only original member in the current band line-up. Greg has kept his own hand in over the years, despite officially retiring from the band in 2006. Doctors diagnosed 33-year-old Greg with orthostatic intolerance, a condition causing fainting spells and slurred speech.
But it was in 2020 that he faced an even greater health challenge, after suffering a near-fatal heart attack while on stage with the Wiggles for a charity reunion concert.
His life was saved by an off-duty nurse in the audience who used CPR and an automated external defibrillator (AED).
“It was a freak event,” says Greg.
“It was caused by heart disease, which wasn’t so severe that it was causing me problems in my everyday life. That’s the really scary thing.”
Over the past five years, Greg’s charity Heart of the Nation has worked to educate people. That any attempt at resuscitation is better than none and increasing the availability of AEDs.
As he recovered, Greg admits he did start to worry, “What if this happens again?” but his health now is “really good”.
Handily, his wife of 16 years, Vanessa, 53 – the mother of two of his four teenage children –is a cardiac nurse.
Greg laughs, “When we’re making dinner, she’s like, ‘Yes, a few more beans and veges!’”
Now when he catches up with his Wiggles mates, it’s often at the golf course.
“We go out and have a hit,” he tells, adding that there is now a new openness between the friends.
“We sit around and talk about our health problems. “As a young person, you might have had your guard up, but now we reach out and say, ‘Hey, how are you? Are you OK?’ I think that’s a lesson
we can all learn.”
