David Behrens meets the former Alhambra manager who's now an impresario.

There's an old saying in showbusiness: it's not how you start, it's how you finish.

Paul Andrews, as he freely admits, started at the bottom.

"I swept the stage, dressed actors, shifted scenery - anything to keep body and soul together," he says.

Finally, still not out of drama school, he hit bottom. Five guineas a day to play bit parts on Crossroads.

"It was in the days when actors kept falling over and shaking the scenery. But the set was so small you couldn't help bumping into things."

His ability now to laugh about those days is founded on being sufficiently successful not to have to go back.

For 15 years, Andrews, one of Bradford's principal theatre bookers, signed up shows for the Alhambra and St George's Hall.

Last year, however, he decided to leave the relative cloisters of the municipal payroll to produce shows of his own. Next month, the first fruits of his work arrive in town.

He has organised the first UK appearances of the Hungarian National Opera, widely respected across Europe, but as yet unknown here.

They will come to the Alhambra, accompanied by a 40-piece orchestra, as one of just three British dates aimed at giving them a foothold here.

"The Bradford appearance is a happy coincidence," says Andrews, who's looking forward to returning to the Alhambra on the other side of the management fence.

"The Scottish National Opera isn't touring this year, so the theatre was keen to find a replacement.

"I saw this company do Puccini's Turandot in Holland some while ago, which was excellent, and we were looking for an alternative to the company we'd already brought over this spring."

Andrews, whose company, Arts Fusion, has bases in Bradford and London, has developed relationships with a number of theatre companies in Eastern Europe.

"We look after the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre and a Polish opera company," he says.

But the most intriguing production on his books is a new classical musical based on Emily Bront's Wuthering Heights. Having begun life as a concept album, it's currently being premiered in English, in Poland.

"It will tour Holland and Belgium," says Andrews. "Whether it comes to Britain depends on how it goes. The producers in Holland would love to bring it here, especially as it has an English cast. But previous attempts at Wuthering Heights haven't always been too successful."

Andrews' career in theatrical management was born, he says, of necessity.

"I trained as an actor, at the Birmingham Theatre School, in the early Seventies. And I had quite a good run at first - I played at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and did bits and pieces on television. But I was married at the time, and because things fluctuate so much in the acting profession, I decided to move over to the management side." He worked for Granada Theatres and at Hull before settling in Bradford in 1982. But it's to those days as a fledgling actor at ATV in Birmingham to which his memories still return.

"I did lots of small parts in Crossroads: umpteen waiters and all sorts. You got just one day's rehearsal or not even that before you went on and did it. But it was great fun for those of us still at drama school because it meant we had professional experience.

"It's more years ago than I care to remember, really. But what they say is true: travelling from the bottom upwards is the way you learn your craft."

The Hungarian National Opera performs Rossini's Il Barbieri Di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) on October 14 and 15, and Puccini's Tosca on October 16 and 17. Tickets are bookable on 01274 752000.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.