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Does sex still sell?

In an era when anyone with a smart phone can quickly sate their erotic appetite, do carnal desires still help market a show?

3 Jun 2015

Richard Watts

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Performing Arts

Rachel Payne as Cleopatra for the The Living Museum of Erotic Women. Photo by 3 Fates Media.

Sex has been used to sell everything from cars and cigarettes to jeans and shoes since at least the 1800s, but in an era when pornography is freely available at the click of a button for anyone with a smartphone, do lust and desire still motivate theatre audiences to buy tickets and see shows?

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Richard Watts

Richard Watts is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM, and serves as the Chair of La Mama Theatre's volunteer Committee of Management. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and was awarded the status of Melbourne Fringe Living Legend in 2017. In 2020 he was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize. Most recently, Richard was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Green Room Awards Association in June 2021. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts