Documentation given to the Oireachtas Committee on Media confirms losses at Toy Show The Musical reached €2.2 million, with just over 11,000 tickets being sold for the shows.
Speaking at the media committee, Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin described the losses made as a "disgrace" and a scandal.
Mr Griffin said the losses were equivalent to the TV licences for "every household in Tralee and every household in the town of Killarney".
"If that's what you're proud of in RTÉ we might as well all pack up and go home," he added.
RTÉ Director of Strategy Rory Coveney said those who attended the musical loved it, and that the loss was not down to lack of effort.
"We took a unique commercial risk," he said, adding that losses were paid for through RTÉ funds.
"We had a lot of advice from theatre and musical theatre," Mr Coveney said, and claimed that nobody told RTÉ not to go ahead with it.
"We were aware of the risks," he added.
Mr Coveney also said that Late Late Show presenter Ryan Tubridy was supportive of the project but "did not have any interest" in taking part.
The documents, which were provided to members of the media committee, detail the individual costings such as venue hire and production set-up costs of €658,500, while the running costs were €622,016.
The documents outline the "detailed financial and business modelling" on which the business case for staging the show were made.
The average ticket price was quoted at €46.50. This meant RTÉ needed to sell 70% across all shows at the 1,995-seater venue to break even.
Just 20,000 people went to see the show. Only 11,044 of them were paying customers, with 5,500 tickets supplied to guests on a complimentary basis and a further 3,500 awarded as prizes.
This is a far cry from the box office predictions made in the business case, which sets out a sellout of the 54 shows delivering €4.1 million.
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In reality, there were just 27 live shows. The total venue capacity for the shows that went ahead was 53,865.
The accounts also detail a forecast of €156,020 for marketing and press but the eventual expenditure was €339,634 - an overspend of €183,614.
The rationale given is that additional spend was required to promote and market the show in addition to direct RTÉ promotional airtime.
A contingency of €182,553 was allocated to set hire for a revolving floor, supplementary sound requirements, and ticket agency costs incurred for the ticket sales platform for the management of refunds and rescheduling resulting from show cancellations.
The accounts also show pre-production costs of over €291,000, which was spent on developing the show content, script and music.
In a statement, Minister for Media Catherine Martin said RTÉ Board Chair Siún Ní Raghallaigh has confirmed she will initiate a further Grant Thornton investigation of the musical.
The committee also heard that it costs €8,000 per year to store the set for Toy Show the Musical.
Mr Coveney said that the biggest costs in putting on the musical were in the development.
He was asked by Labour Senator Marie Sherlock what was forecast for year two and three.
Mr Coveney said that "the development costs are not there so the profit should go up but as it turned out that didn't happen".
He said they have decided they are not doing the show this year and, so far, it has not been decided what should happen in the future.
Mr Coveney told the committee that none of the cost associated with the musical was covered by the barter account.
Sinn Féin TD John Brady said that last week we were told the details were "commercially sensitive" and it now appears they were more "personally sensitive".
Mr Coveney said "the first week the houses were quite full. The real tipping point came on the first weekend on the 17th" when cast fell ill and performances were cancelled.
"There were discussions about how [Ryan Tubridy] might participate in the story itself", which "would have been a recording", he said.
"It wasn't a hostile conversation - he just wasn't interested," Mr Coveney added.
Mr Coveney said that the Bord Gáis Theatre was among "a couple" of different venues considered for the musical, but that "they didn't want to do it"
The Convention Centre was chosen as it "was the right size for the type of show we wanted to put on. Obviously we were incorrect," Mr Coveney said, adding that: "This is a very different production to pantomimes".
