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Toy Show musical made a loss of over €2.2 million after selling just 11,044 tickets

RTÉ sold just 11,044 tickets across 27 shows.

LAST UPDATE | 5 Jul 2023

RTÉ HAS PROVIDED documents detailing the financial impact of last year’s Toy Show The Musical project ahead of this week’s Oireachtas committee meetings.

Documents seen by The Journal reveal that the inaugural Toy Show musical last year made just €495,961 in revenue against costs of €2,699,193. In total, the project made a loss of €2,203,231.

The musical was based on the annual Late Late Toy Show and was billed as one girl’s own Toy Show adventure.

“With the entire Toy Show in jeopardy, Nell and the local kids must find a way to save the night and keep everyone’s favourite TV show alive,” read the RTÉ synopsis for the musical. 

Tickets were priced from €25. 

RTÉ’s economic forecast for the second quarter of 2022 and had factored revenue from the event as being worth €3.215 million, based on the assumption that 83.75% of tickets would be sold across 54 shows.

Meeting this target would have required selling over 90,000 tickets.

In the end, RTÉ sold just 11,044 tickets across 27 performances (as half of the shows ended up being cancelled), the documents show.

Comp and guest tickets made up 5,573 total audience members, while competition winners made up a further 3,645.

Including RTÉ guests, free tickets, and competition winners, Toy Show The Musical managed to fill just 41% of the available capacity of the Convention Centre.

At the time, RTÉ reported that cancellations were due to illness among the cast and crew and RTÉ said the team did “everything possible” to avoid cancellations. 

These cancellations ended up forcing refunds worth €251,000. 

A breakdown of costs associated with the musical, which was spearheaded by RTÉ’s Director of Strategy Rory Coveney, shows that almost half of the cost went towards hiring the Convention Centre venue, and “showrunning costs”.

Just over half a million was spent on creative team and management costs, while €369,853 went on rehearsal costs. €156,020 was spent on “marketing and press”.

photo-2023-07-05-10-16-09

Speaking on Morning Ireland, Labour Party Marie Sherlock said: “I must say, in some ways I’m kind of almost gobsmacked at what we’re learning… Actual revenues were only about 15% of the forecast revenues.”

“I know the phrase ‘flop’ has been used, but that’s more than a flop, that is an absolute disaster in terms of the planning that went into that show and how it could have failed so badly,” said the Senator, who sat on the Oireachtas Media Committee last week in place of her colleague Annie Hoey.

In a statement issued on Wednesday afternoon, Minister for Media and Culture Catherine Martin noted “the deeply unsatisfactory nature in which information is being provided by the Executive”.

As part of the same statement, Martin said that Chair of the RTÉ Board Siún Ní Raghallaigh had “confirmed they will initiate a further Grant Thornton investigation of the Toy Show the Musical”.

The production was also criticised at the time for having an unfair advantage over smaller pantomime shows, which were largely cancelled during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last December, the Dáil’s spending watchdog asked RTÉ to clarify how much money had been spent on the musical

Speaking at the time, the chair of the Public Accounts Committee Brian Stanley said the financial risks involved with the musical appeared to “be too high”. 

Stanley added: “On the face of it, it appears that proper market research was not done. There were empty seats and shows being cancelled.”

RTÉ had defended the production, with director of strategy Rory Coveney stating in December that while he was disappointed with ticket sales for the show, he hoped it would be a “longer term investment”.

Taking to Twitter today, playwright Philly McMahon said every theatre maker in the country would need a lie down after hearing the figures involved in the Toy Show musical. 

“Your standard independent company could make a decade worth of shows with that budget”, said McMahon. 

Documents pertaining to Toy Show The Musical have been made public following amid the scandal that has engulfed RTÉ in the wake of the discovery that a barter account had been used to make unreported payments totalling €345,000 to presenter Ryan Tubridy. 

What has followed is a wholesale examination of the national broadcaster’s corporate governance, financial and cultural practices.

RTÉ executives appeared before two Oireachtas committees last week and will do so again this week, beginning with the Media Committee at 1.30pm this afternoon. 

Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly have agreed to appear before the committees as early as next week.

With reporting by Christina Finn

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    Mute The Snowball Effect
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    Jan 2nd 2015, 11:29 AM

    Whats worse is there is Eastern European gangs whose sole reason for living in this country is to rob left right and center, if we give a description we are called racist

    Unbelievable

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    Mute Peter Derbyshire
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    Jan 2nd 2015, 9:44 AM

    How does one access the approved local community contact?

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    Mute Tom Red
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    Jan 2nd 2015, 9:51 AM

    This would be very handy ,
    only some P***k nicked my mobile phone. …

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    Mute Tom Fennelly
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    Jan 2nd 2015, 9:47 AM

    And if the Gardai do eventually come out to your home and find you are having your lock repaired by someone or a decent neighbour who are not members of the Private Security Authority you get fined €3,000 and your neighbour €10,000. Cut the quangos and jail the criminals instead.

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    Mute youknowimright
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    Jan 2nd 2015, 9:49 AM

    Fined by who? What?

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    Mute Tom Fennelly
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    Jan 2nd 2015, 10:48 AM

    Private Security Authority. It’s the law. You cannot have a window lock, door lock, or CCTV fitted by anyone unless they are members of the PSA. You end up with a criminal record as happened in a Navan restaurant before Christmas. If your parents are living down the country and you send them a Plug & Play CCTV recorder and four cameras they can’t plug it in. That is the law/ Go to the PSA website and see it and maybe encourage some of the red thumbers who dont realize it to have a look as well.

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    Mute David Conroy
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    Jan 2nd 2015, 10:54 AM

    Thankfully we do not live in a country that enforces it’s laws. Stick up your own CCTV system, it’ll be grand !!

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    Mute Bob Goodbear
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    Jan 2nd 2015, 11:55 AM

    I must look it up. I had heard that about alarms alright but not locks etc. On what grounds are you breaking a law? I could just about understand an insurer trying to use it as an escape route to not paying out if you had a break in. I can understand if it was a strong recommendation but breaking the law, how?
    Off now to do some reading up.

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    Mute Tony Tee
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    Jan 2nd 2015, 12:31 PM

    Thats rubbish Tom…..you are not allowed supply safes, locks, CCTV etc commercially without being licensed. The guy prosecuted was trading without the necessary license. There is nothing to stop a individual installing their own CCTV or changing their own locks.

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    Mute Reg
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    Jan 2nd 2015, 10:07 AM

    On a related note, I was looking for a map that shows which Garda stations are responsible for particular areas in Dublin. Anyone know of one? You’d think that something like this would be easily available but it doesn’t seem to be.

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    Mute Lára de Siúin
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    Jan 2nd 2015, 11:38 AM

    Ring any Dublin station and ask who covers whatever area you’re looking to know about… Surely you’d have a rough idea who covers where?!

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    Mute Greg O'Dubhuidhe
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    Jan 2nd 2015, 12:07 PM

    The Garda site used to have it until the update. Perhaps they thought it might aid criminals? There is a Google maps option on the site that will give an indication of your nearest one.

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    Mute Eoin Cowan
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    Jan 2nd 2015, 9:49 AM

    My phone will be hopping so, I live in town!!!!

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    Mute www90
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    Jan 2nd 2015, 3:43 PM

    Im staying in Wexford for the weekend wat a joke

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