There are 440 children who are members of the cast. About 30 to 50 kids are in the show each night (each child participates in multiple shows during the run).
So let’s figure it out. Each child’s family, in addition to the proud parents, might have grannies, grandpas, aunts, uncles, friends, brothers and sisters. And they all go to the Nutcracker, some several times (more on that later.)
“You take four weeks of nightly productions at the Warner Theatre, and they all have to eat dinner, park their cars, and all have their brothers and sisters and neighbors, and they go to eat at Chef Geoff’s across the street, and then there are all those bottles of wine,” said de Leon. “This is big business for the District.”
(During the 2009 blizzard, many parents of children in the ballet booked nearby hotel rooms so the kids would not miss performances.)
And the kids keep coming back year after year to be in the show, dreaming of one day becoming the Sugar Plum Fairy or the Cavalier, two of the most coveted roles in the production.
That keeps moms and dads coming, too. By the time the ballet parents are exhausted from buying all the stuff at the show’s Sugar Plum Shop each year, another class of would-be Sugar Plums is waiting in the wings.
(The model works so well that next spring’s production of “Alice in Wonderland” will include about 100 children.)
Raul and Jean-Marie Fernandez are going to 15 performances this year. Fernandez, a local businessman and investor, is going to see more sugarplums than he will see hockey this year, and he is one of the largest shareholders in the Washington Capitals.
Why?
Their daughter Sofiais in “The Nutcracker.”
I am seeing “The Nutcracker” three times this year in three different cities, and I don’t even have a kid in the show. I just love the music — and Christmas, of course.
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