Production
Barney's Colorful World! was initially slated to begin touring in September 2002, but was eventually postponed by a few months. The inspiration behind Barney's Colorful World! came from the desire of scriptwriter Stephen White to have interesting and varied looks and environments for the stage to keep things interesting.
Casting
Cast members from Barney & Friends such as Katherine Pully, who portrayed "Beth" and Hayden Tweedie who portrayed "Sarah" were asked to take part in the tour. Tweedie reprised her role however Pully ultimately declined. [5] During production of the tour, Sarah Vernon Swartz and Corby Sullivan, who would portray Barney within the original production of the tour, were trained by David Joyner, the original body of Barney on Barney & Friends, to do the signature 360 spin in New York. [3]
The performances in Mexico and Puerto Rico were dubbed in Spanish, meaning that the voices of Barney, Baby Bop and BJ were done by Rubén Cerda, Elsa Covián and Love Santini, respectively. From September 2 to December 6, 2004, the role of Gina would be portrayed by Alexandrea Antonio. [6] Also, Jackson, Laura and Stacy can still be seen in several scenes in the UK release of the video amongst many of the audience members who interact with Barney at the auditorium, as the stage performance was taken directly from the US release.
Hayden Tweedie did not reprise her role as Sarah in the video release. Despite this, she is still seen in the book adaptation (which was adapted into a read along for the DVD release). [7]
Release
After a soft run in Memphis, Tennessee, [3] the show made its world premiere on January 23, 2003 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York. The show performed in over eighty cities and performed over four-hundred shows. It was resented by Toys "R" Us during its original run and produced by HIT Entertainment. The show toured in North America, Canada, the United Kingdom, [8] Ireland, Mexico, and Puerto Rico until December 2004. In the United States alone, the show was seen by over seven hundred fifty thousand people. [9] It was also performed in Latin America from 2007 to 2009 and 2011. [10] [11]
The original run of the tour ran from January 2003 through to November 2004. [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] During the original run of the tour, Barney performed sing-alongs at hospital Child Life centers in each of the tour cities and donated a library of Barney videos to the hospitals. Fisher-Price also donated Barney toys for playrooms as well. [18] Also during the show's original run, the intermission consisted of Sheryl Leach (the creator of Barney) coming "backstage" to bring roses to Barney in his dressing room and congratulating him on how well the "show" was going so far.
Marketing
To promote the tour, Barney appeared on Live with Regis and Kelly on the day of the show's premiere, January 23, 2003. [19] During his appearance he sang "I Love You" and "If You're Happy and You Know It". Given that the show was presented by Toys "R" Us, children were able to present their stage show ticket stub at their participating stores to get a free "Chat With Me" phone card to call Barney. The store would retain the ticket stub upon issuing Barney's "Chat With Me" phone card, where one card would be issued for each show ticket stub received. Participants then would call the toll-free number. In select cities, Toys "R" Us guests could order tickets before they went on sale to the general public by calling the phone number listed on their website. [20] [21] The program won the Silver Pyramid Award at the 26th Annual Promotional Products Association International in 2003. [22] To promote the video release of the tour, Barney, Baby Bop, BJ, and the polar bear from the show performed "It's C-C Cold BRRRR!" for the 78th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in November 2004.
Barney's Colorful World! was released on VHS and DVD on September 14, 2004. Alongside the filmed performance of the show, the DVD included cast interviews from the children, a read-along, episodes from various HIT Entertainment shows and much more. The Spanish-dubbed version of this video was released in 2008 to commemorate Barney's 20th anniversary. For the DVD release, it contained various episodes from various HIT Entertainment shows under the "HIT Extras" bonus feature. Those included the episodes "Muck Gets Stuck" from Bob the Builder , "Haircut" from The Wiggles , "Sploshy of the Arctic" from Rubbadubbers , "Angelina and Anya" from Angelina Ballerina , "The Treasure Hunt" from Kipper and "Pingu Goes Fishing" from Pingu . On April 22, 2022, the official Barney YouTube channel, managed by 9 Story Media Group at the time, uploaded the show on their platform, with the video uploaded coming from a Barney fan upload on the sitee. It was later included in the streaming package titled "Barney & Friends Specials", alongside other Barney Home Videos, which was began streaming on Tubi on September 29, 2023.
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