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?
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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 OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts