Supercalifragilistic Results at the Cultural Centre

It's official! The multi-award winning musical Mary Poppins has broken box office records to become the biggest selling show at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) for over a decade. Produced by Cameron Mackintosh and Disney Theatrical Productions, the Australian production of the world's most magical musical has sold more than 160,000 tickets since opening at QPAC's Lyric Theatre on 5 January.

Arts Minister Rachel Nolan today congratulated QPAC and the Mary Poppins cast for the record-breaking achievement. "The QPAC season of Mary Poppins has been a resounding success and in addition to becoming the highest selling show, it has also broken the box office record for the highest number of advance sales in more than a decade. The Brisbane season opened with more than 80 per cent of tickets sold," Ms Nolan said.

"The biggest show ever for QPAC in terms of ticket sales was The Phantom of the Opera in 1996, but that ran for a six month season, so the 'Supercalifragilistic' musical can rightly take a bow for being the highest selling show for QPAC this century. "Mary Poppins is the latest in a string of successes for the Cultural Centre, cementing the precinct as one of Australia's most popular cultural destinations.

"The obliteration room installation, which has attracted global press and social media attention at the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), is to be recreated at London's Tate Modern for a major retrospective of the Yayoi Kusama's work opening on 9 February. "GoMA's current exhibition of Kusama's work has been very popular, and the international response to The obliteration room - in which visitors cover a completely white room with an abundance of multi-coloured dot stickers - has been unprecedented.

"We are ecstatic that this work, due to its success, will now be included in the major retrospective opening at the Tate Modern and I congratulate the team at the Queensland Art Gallery. "Also drawing the crowds is the redeveloped Queensland Museum, which recently opened its doors, following a $14.3 million revamp and has been a huge hit with the public.

"Reports showed that more than 30,000 people visited the Queensland Museum and Sciencentre over its three-day opening weekend (20-22 Jan)." Ms Nolan said the recent success demonstrated the Bligh Government's commitment to keeping the Cultural Centre at the top of its game.

"Success stories such as this do not just happen by accident, they require vision and determination and while the opposition has stood stagnant, the State Government has not waivered in its support of Queensland arts and culture," Ms Nolan said. "Five years ago the Shadow Arts Minister called GoMA a white elephant, but the Bligh Government forged ahead and is now standing on a record of delivering a world class Cultural Centre.

"More than 3.9 million visits are recorded across the Cultural Centre annually and so the precinct is not just a cultural hub, but a key supporter of the local economy and jobs. The Bligh Government has invested heavily in the Cultural Centre to ensure it continues to draw record crowds and over the past five years has undertaken a $40 million revamp of QPAC, opened The Edge, a digital culture centre at the State Library of Queensland (SLQ), built the Gallery of Modern Art and redeveloped SLQ through the $291.3 million Millennium Arts Project."


Supercalifragilistic results at the Cultural Centre
Finance, Natural Resources and The Arts
The Honourable Rachel Nolan
03/02/2012

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Publish Date: 06 Feb 12

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