Mamma Mia! It's a record breaker
Mar 17 2009 by Gordon Barr, The Journal
HIT musical Mamma Mia! is already proving to be a smash for North East audiences.
Long queues formed throughout the day at the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle as tickets for the world’s number one show went on general sale yesterday.
About £1m of tickets have been sold since we revealed a pre-sale number last week making it the fastest-selling Mamma Mia! International Tour set of shows ever in the UK. That means more than 35,000 tickets have been snapped up. The musical is at the Arena from December 12 to January 10 for its only UK dates this year. Colin Revel, executive director of the Arena, said: “We are very pleased with how sales have gone. It is going very, very well.
“Due to the volume of sales, the processing is taking a bit longer than usual, so we are asking people to be patient.
“But it is obvious audiences in the North East know a good night out. We have had inquiries from a number of coach companies, very well known companies, bringing loads of people to the area to shop during the day and then enjoy the show at night.”
Mamma Mia!, based on the songs of Abba, has broken box office records around the world and has been seen by more than 32 million people, is set to be one of the biggest theatrical events in the region in decades and about £4.5m is expected to be ploughed into the economy as a result.
The event marks a coup for both the city and the North East – the last time the touring version of Mamma Mia! was seen in Britain was early last year, when it enjoyed a run of sell-out shows in Glasgow. Last year’s film version of the musical has become the biggest grossing movie in UK box office history, while the DVD is the biggest seller of all time in Britain.
Andrew Dixon, chief executive of NGI said it gave the show’s promoters £10,000 to help towards marketing as they were so “confident” they would get it back.
He added: “We know that the arena regularly attracts a number of visitors from outside of the North East region. The average spend here per head is estimated at about £100 per day.
“It’s great news. We have moved from being a place that was always closed Sunday, Monday, Tuesday to a place that is open 365 days a year.”
Ross Smith, head of policy and research with the North East Chamber of Commerce, said: “I think the way the North East has established itself as a real cultural venue has been hugely beneficial to the region’s economy.
“This is one example of that and we have seen already in Sunderland with tickets for Oasis and Take That this summer bringing people from outside the region to discover what the North East has to offer.”
For more stories on the campaign go to www.journallive.co.uk/think
