RIVERDANCE Breaks Box Office Records in South Africa

RIVERDANCE, the Original International Phenomenon, has touched the hearts of millions around the world and now, in its 16th year, has just broken the box office records for ticket sales for its very first tour of South Africa.

BRyan Hill, GM of the Teatro at Montecasino, confirmed this at the dress rehearsal by excitedly declaring the show had broken the box office record for pre-bookings since the venue opened four years ago.  "Over 52,000 tickets have been sold," he said.   RIVERDANCE is currently playing in Johannesburg through February 20 at Teatro at Montecasino and then moves on to Cape Town's Grand Arena at Grand West Casino from February 23-27.

So why has it taken so long for the show to get to South Africa?  John Langford of Big Concerts explains: "The production is huge, with more than 65 cast and crew, so there have always been issues around being able to afford to mount it in SA, and when we explored bringing it here three years ago, things didn't work out and the markets crashed and that was that. RIVERDANCE Senior Executive Producer Julian Erskine and his team have always wanted to come, but we've never been able to offer them a large enough venue. The Teatro has completely revolutionised things for us - it has a huge seating capacity and can take the larger musical and dance productions."
South Africans just can't seem to get enough of the Celtic music and dance styles and this is their chance to see Riverdance live - that's if they can get a ticket.

Few people may know it but it also has a place in South African dance history - it has inspired several local choreographers and in homegrown shows such as African Footprint, there's no mistaking the influence it's had.

Composed by Bill Whelan, produced by Moya Doherty and directed by John McColgan, to date, RIVERDANCE - now in its 16the phenomenal year --  has played over 10,000 performances, been seen live by more than 22 million people in over 350 venues throughout 40 countries across 4 continents. They have traveled well  over 600,000 miles (or to the moon and back!), played to a worldwide television audience of 2 billion; sold over 3 million copies of the Grammy Award-winning CD (certified Platinum in the US) and over 10 million videos making it one of the best-selling entertainment videos in the world!  RIVERDANCE had its world premiere at the Point Theatre, Dublin, in February 1995, where it opened to unanimous critical acclaim.
                                   
www.riverdance.com
 

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