The Late Late Toy Show musical flop - which lost €2.2 million - was competing against some of their own RTE favourite characters in rival panto shows last Christmas.
The RTE show, which lost a staggering €2.2 million, was competing against a host of the station’s favourites such as Marty Morrissey, Fair City’s Johnny Ward and comic Katherine Lynch - who were playing panto characters in competing performances.
Ryan Tubridy himself was not part of the musical and documents have been revealed to show that the much hyped show took in just €495,961 against costs of €2,699,193.
READ MORE - Toy Show The Musical writer reveals writing show was 'worst experience' of her career
The production managed to get just 20,000 bums on seats for the entire production - with only 11,044 of attendees forking out for the tickets which cost, on average, €46.50 each.
Approximately 5,500 complimentary tickets were given out to audience goers with a further 3,500 tickets awarded as prizes.
Running at the same time as The Late Late Toy Show musical last December was the Gaiety’s Jungle Book - a traditional family favourite. The Dublin theatre has hosted their annual Christmas Panto each year since 1873.
Hansel and Gretel also gave the RTE show some fierce competition at Dublin’s Helix as the theatre ran the panto based on the popular Brothers Grimm fairytale. The Helix posted on Facebook last November that many of their shows had already sold out in advance.
Panto tickets for Snow White at the National Stadium cost just €25 per person, and the show was presented by Ireland AM’s Alan Hughes, AKA Sammy Sausages, and writer Karl Hughes.
RTE’s Marty Morrissey starred in the same production as the Magic Mirror, as did comic Katherine Lynch, who has had several TV series broadcast on RTE Two.
The production’s Facebook page described the show as the "biggest ever panto", adding "you cannot beat word of mouth".
Also competing for paying customers was the Mill Theatre with its production of Little Red Riding Hood, while Tallaght’s Civic Theatre showed Sleeping Beauty.
Cork’s Opera House also hosted a production of Sleeping Beauty, while Peter Pan ran at University Concert Hall in Limerick with Fair City’s Johnny Ward - who was also a finalist in RTÉ’s 2019 Dancing with the Stars.
