Riverdance losses fall €5.5m to €1m

THE company that produces the Riverdance stage show saw its losses drop by more than €5.5 million in 2007.

Newly filed accounts for Abhann Productions show pre-tax losses in the year to the end of June 2007 of e1m compared with a loss of €6.6m in the previous year.

Turnover for the year to end of June 2007 fell from €24m to e15.7m while gross profit dropped from €7.2m to €3.8m.

The accounts show that turnover from the show was down more than e1m in Europe to e8.1m while the hit in North America was bigger, with turnover dropping almost e3m to e7.5m.

There was no turnover recorded in Asia, where income was e3.9m in 2006.

Overall turnover from stage show was down to e12.8m in 2007 from e19.3 in the previous year.

Income generated from programmes and audio visual sales was almost e830,000, down from e1.1m in 2006.

The number of employees in the year halved from 22 to 11. Staff costs in the year were more than e717,000 from e1.5m in 2006.

Riverdance was the brainchild of John McColgan and Moya Doherty, who came up with the performance as the interval act for the 1994 Eurovision song contest.

The show has earned the couple a small fortune since it began touring worldwide.

The couple launched a new show in late 2006 based on the life of the 16th century Irish chieftain and pirate Grace O’Malley.

The Pirate Queen opened in October 2006 in Chicago before transferring to Broadway.

Reviewers were highly critical, with the New York Times saying it was “like the aimless milling of a crowd on a carnival.”