Olivia Chow, The Beaches, Carley Fortune and more to take stage at The Nutcracker
Toronto Maple Leafs Auston Matthews (right) and Mitchell Marner appear as Cannon Dolls in a production of "The Nutcracker" in Toronto on Wednesday December 19, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Mayor Olivia Chow will be trading in her chain of office for ballet slippers later this month.
The city's mayor is among a long list of prominent Torontonians who will be making cameos in the National Ballet of Canada’s production of ‘The Nutcracker,’ which begins its run at the Four Seasons Centre on Dec. 8.
Other notable names receiving invites include bestselling author Carley Fortune, WNBA star Kia Nurse, musicians Jordan Miller and Leandra Earl from the Toronto rock band ‘the Beaches,’ and CTV News Toronto’s Michelle Dubé and Nathan Downer.
“Celebrity walk-on roles are a long-standing tradition with Nutcrackers all over the world,” a news release announcing the special roles states.
“To date, the National Ballet has invited 1,262 Canadian luminaries and personalities to appear onstage in the coveted roles.”
Chow and the other special guests will all partake in the production as "Cannon Dolls” who who shoot a cannon into the audience in the first act of the production.
While they will appear almost identical in costume, their personalities will differ.
According to the National Ballet of Canada, the contrast in their bold versus timid behavior is the only “hard and fast rule” that guest performers are required to follow.
Otherwise, the dolls have full autonomy onstage, adding a touch of spontaneity to the traditional rigidness that ballerinas, in contrast, often have to follow.
In previous years, former mayor Rob Ford took the stage as a Cannon Doll, as has Toronto Raptor’s point guard, Kyle Lowry.
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