A FIRST night show had to be abandoned little more than an hour before curtain up on Tuesday when a power cut plunged Malvern Theatres into darkness.

The cast and crew of Just Between Ourselves, which features popular television host Les Dennis, had been making final preparations to go on stage when the failure, just after 6.45pm, knocked out the theatre's lighting.

The power cut, caused by an underground cable fault and lasting several hours, affected 544 customers of electricity supplier Aquila Networks, formerly GPU Power UK around the Worcester Road, Church Street and Abbey Road area.

"The lights seemed to come back on just after 8pm but they were flickering on and off after that," said Malvern Theatres spokesman Alison Goodwin.

"They went off about 6.45pm and it was raining and dark outside. From a safety and security aspect we had to evacuate the building."

Ms Goodwin added that the financial impact on the theatres had not been too severe, as most patrons had rebooked the show for later in the week.

However, the Vineyard restaurant at the theatre complex had almost an entire evening's food wasted as pre-show patrons left when the building was evacuated.

The rescheduled 'first night' went ahead without any further hitches on Wednesday evening.

The last Malvern Theatres show to be affected by power cuts was a pantomime by the Malvern Theatre Players in the mid-1990s.

While the theatre has a back-up generator for emergency lighting, it is insufficient to light the show.

Other businesses faired little better. Kevin Capper, owner of the White Season in Church Street, said that it was forced to close from 8pm onwards.

"With no light and no extraction there's not a lot you can do really," he said.

"The restaurant would have been half full with bookings, there just wasn't enough light to work. It could quite easily have lost us £500."

Chris Lush, tenant of The Unicorn pub on Belle Vue Terrace, said the length of the cut caused little problems.

"We had a lot of candles out and it was how we imagined the Blitz to be!" he added.

The Abbey Hotel suffered a total cut but an emergency back-up system supplied some light.

"We couldn't cook so guests could only have things like sandwiches," said general manager Patrick Jones.

"All our computer systems went down and the telephones went down. As far as the guests were concerned they were very understanding."

Lesley Newman, spokesman for Aquila Networks, apologised for the inconvenience caused.

"We do have underground cable faults and it's unfortunate, now and again they crop up," she said.

All power was restored by 11.20pm.