Flop musical script hailed before it was even written
AN internal RTÉ business plan on Toy Show The Musical claimed the script was ‘well developed’ – months before its external scriptwriter had even been contacted to write it.
The earliest business case for the flop was handed to the Public Accounts Committee by RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst yesterday.
The document from November 2021 – more than a year before the musical was staged – outlined that one of the ‘key competitive advantages’ of the ‘Late Late Toy Show... Live!’, as it was called at the time, was a ‘brilliant and welldeveloped script/concept.’
However, an external scriptwriter on the show, Lisa Tierney Keogh, recently revealed she was contracted by RTÉ to write the script just nine months before it hit the stage in December 2022. She got a phone call to write the script in March 2022 – months after the business plan was written. She said recently: ‘The time frame was bonkers but I genuinely believed we’d just about get it over the line.
‘Soon enough, I got my first taste of RTÉ’s management style. It was a heady mishmash of “computer says no” and Caesar’s thumb turning downwards in a Roman arena. The night of the big launch arrived on May 12, 2022. Press releases and publicity bounded centre stage after it was announced live on The Late Late Show. Tickets went on sale, for a show that was not yet fully written.’
By August 2022, Ms Tierney Keogh had left the musical, after she said RTÉ wanted to bring a more experienced writer on board.
The ‘short form business plan’ on the musical was prepared by producers Jane Murphy and Katherine Drohan, along with RTÉ’s now-departed director of strategy Rory Coveney, with support from Riverdance producer Julian Erskine.
The musical lost RTÉ €2.2million and a recently published independent report into the show revealed there was no formal board approval for the major project. The musical was staged in Dublin’s 1,995-seat Convention Centre – but never sold out.
Mr Bakhurst has defended giving an exit payment to Mr Coveney, who RTÉ called the ‘driving force’ behind the musical. The amount paid out has not been disclosed.
The newly released early business plan also identified a number of ‘threats’ and ‘weaknesses’ to the venture, including that ‘musicals are a notoriously difficult endeavour and success in this market is dependent on delivery of a product that exceeds significant expectations’.
It added: ‘The Christmas period is well served with many well-established events occupying prime calendar dates (e.g. Christmas Pantos, annual West End show at Bord Gáis, Christmas/Santa Experiences).’
The possible pitfalls identified also included ‘vulnerability’ around Covid-19.
‘A negative experience at an event could severely damage a well-established brand and RTÉ,’ the plan added.
However, another document by Mr Coveney, given to Oireachtas committee members last year, said: ‘Toy Show The Musical is not a pantomime nor is it designed or priced to compete with the muchloved Irish pantomimes.’
The musical’s creators, Ms Murphy and Ms Drohan, were paid on top of their RTÉ salaries for their work. They also benefited from an artists’ tax exemption for earnings from the project. Both were Late Late Show producers when they pitched the idea.
‘The time frame was bonkers’