HOW could things have gone so wrong for Durham's 510-seater Gala Theatre in a mere 18 weeks?

The pledge that the building "represents the new spirit of the North-East" is still ringing in our ears as the company operating the prestige project, The Entertainment Team (Durham) Ltd, staggers off stage.

Over-ambitious and disorganised launch events involving Westlife and A1, plus a ticket booking system which irritated the very people it was trying to attract, was the worst start possible.

The region's best knight at the theatre, Sir Alan Ayckbourn, and his Stephen Joseph Theatre company was an inspired choice to raise the curtain at the air-conditioned, beautifully sight-lined auditorium. A foyer without a stick of furniture for first-nighters to sit on was a distinctly bum note.

As the theatre's history-making line-up of old stagers, unknown stand-up comics, obscure musicals and children's shows struggled for audiences there was a glimmer of hope over amateur events and one-off appearances of musicians like US sax player Michael Brecker.

Even St Cuthbert's Sacred Journey couldn't come to the rescue, initially because the widescreen movie wasn't ready for the opening and was replaced by Beauty and the Beast - a telling indication of what was to come.

April's Summer Season turned out to be make-or-break for The Entertainment Team. Clement Freud, Henry Blofeld, Bonnie Langford and remnants of The Animals and the Gumbleweeds was never going to be the answer. Well might Lionel Blair appear in the drama Who Killed Agatha Christie? The answer turned out to be ticket buyers. In the past few weeks the venue has been offering free seats to try and bump up attendance levels - so claims of 60-65 per cent audiences may be a slight exaggeration.

Saddest of all is the sight of Jack Charlton's poster for a celebrity appearance on Sunday. The World Cup winner was a star attraction at Stockton's Arc just before that crashed in November last year.

Will the Gala stay in business long enough to greet its namesake event, Gala Week, in July? Hopefully, but the pressure of saving the Millennium-funded building now falls on the public purse and Durham City Council's coffers.

Rumours are rife that London-based The Entertainment Team, led by Mike Power, put together lists of attractions that were more attractive to it than the people of Durham.

Although the horrors of The Woman In Black (June 17-22) on tour have to be negotiated first, this is an opportunity for a drama not to turn into a crisis. With the right level of research locally, and using Durham's tourist treasure reputation to pull in celebrity events, the building can become the place where people meet, greet and put up their feet in front of Gala nights to remember.