Les Miserables is not the jolliest of names for a show, but it has left Bradford Council's sport and recreation sub-committee far from glum. Thanks to its success in drawing the crowds to the Alhambra, the theatre has managed to meet its targeted profit of £170,000 for the April-August period.

It was a close thing, apparently. Costly flops earlier in the year had shown how difficult it is to pick a showbusiness winner. Even Les Mis fell £40,000 short of its profit target, but the deficiency was made up by sales of sweets, ices, bar drinks and merchandising.

However, what we are talking about here is profit targets, not losses. Hopefully, the Alhambra will never see a repeat of those dark days when it faced £2 million losses because of the way its affairs were handled and had to close for a while to save cash. It has been a remarkable turnaround. The theatre is now a useful earner for Bradford, in more ways than one.

The Pennington Midland, for instance, reports a healthy increase in trade during the run of Les Mis. That same knock-on lift to the local economy must have been noticed by many other businesses.

A show so popular attracted many people from a wide area to Bradford - people who might otherwise never have come here - and gave the reputations of the Alhambra and the city a boost. It also brought in people for whom a visit to the theatre might have been a new experience. Hopefully, some of them will now become regulars, enriching both their own lives and the Alhambra's profits.

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