Riverdance backers return to profit after Covid hit

Dancer Chloey Turner performs with Riverdance at the Fox Theatre, Detroit. Photo: Paul Warner/Getty Images — © Getty Images

Gordon Deegan

The backers of Riverdance are doing a jig once more after their company rebounded from its Covid-19 losses to record profits of €2m last year as audiences ‘flocked back’ to the production.

The pandemic shut down Riverdance in March 2020 and the production did not perform again until September 2021 resulting in "significant costs” to Abhann Productions Ltd, according to a note attached to new accounts.

In the Covid-19-hit 12 months to the end of June 2021, revenues at John McColgan’s and Moya Doherty’s Abhann Productions Ltd plummeted to just €139,000 due to the absence of touring and the business recorded losses of €1.097m.

This followed post-tax losses of €747,465 at Abhann Productions in the prior 12 months to the end of June 2020.

The losses are confirmed in two new sets of accounts just filed by Abhann Productions for 2021 and 2020 and a large part of the 2020 loss was for termination costs where Riverdance had to close both its US and UK tours at very short notice due to Covid-19 shutdowns.

However, the business bounced back last year as touring Riverdance productions generated global audiences of 400,000 that helped to generate revenues of €14m and the profits of €2m.

Recalling the impact of Covid-19, Riverdance director John McColgan yesterday said: “It was the most difficult time of our professional life. But we’re back touring and audiences are flocking back – thanks be to God”.

On the Covid-19 shutdown of the production in the Spring of 2020, Mr McColgan remembers: “Riverdance was playing in Radio City Music Hall in New York City at the beginning of a six-month tour.

“At the end of show three we were told we were being shut down. At the same time, our second touring show in the UK was stopped.

“We and everybody in the entertainment industry was shut down for over two years.”

Riverdance usually has two productions touring simultaneously each employing 50 to 55 in cast and crew.

One troupe is performing Riverdance 25th anniversary show dates in California this weekend as part of a 50-city tour of the US this year.

The anniversary show will also be at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin from June 15 to September 10 this year.

A note attached to the accounts states that “the lifting of Covid restrictions and return of touring and live performance has resulted in a return to profitability and positive cash flows”.

The shutdown of the firm’s touring production coincided with Mr McColgan and Ms Doherty ploughing additional funds into the business.

The aggregate net amount owed by the company to the two increased from €731,229 in June 2019 to €1.67m at the end of June 2021.

The Covid-19 related losses of fiscal 2021 and 2020 reduced accumulated profits to just €8,976 at the end of June 2021 while the firm's cash funds decreased from €1.03m to €642,928.

The 2021 loss took account of advances written off to connected firms of €72,878 and Government grants of €128,323, it also took account of non-cash depreciation costs of €33,531.

Riverdance first emerged from the interval act at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest andhas played more than 15,000 performances, been seen live by over 28.5 million people worldwide and been seen by a global television audience of more than 3.5 billion people.​​​​​​​