To make sense of the flurry of headlines about the Apollo Theatre, forget the charges that politics and racism motivate them. For this is a story of impartial, cold numbers -- numbers that show convincingly that the legendary state-owned theater has not been getting its fair share of revenues.

As the Daily News reported Sunday, the controller of the Apollo Theatre Foundation concluded that Percy Sutton's Inner City Theatre Group owed the theater $4.4 million under a license agreement for the popular TV program "It's Showtime at the Apollo." But the foundation didn't get anywhere close to $4.4 million. It got, until recently, only $50,000 -- over five years.

Put in stark terms, for every dollar of the $17.5 million Sutton took in from "Showtime," the foundation got less than a penny. That fact shames Sutton, the board and anyone else who professes love for the Apollo.

Love means having to pay what you owe.

The memo outlining these numbers is the surest evidence yet that the foundation board failed to safeguard the Apollo. The board is chaired by Rep. Charles Rangel, Sutton's old friend.

The heart of the issue is in the December 1992 deal between Inner City Theatre Group and the Apollo foundation. It says that Sutton "shall pay to ATF for 'It's Showtime at the Apollo' $2,000 for each day of taping . . . or 25% of the annual net profits to be derived from the said television show, whichever is greater." The deal was signed by just two people -- Sutton and Rangel.

Sutton's complaints that the show only recently became profitable are irrelevant, because the agreement clearly defines "net profit" as "gross invoice selling prices thereof in the form in which they are sold . . . without any other deductions of any kind whatsoever."

The language is dense, but the high-powered law firm of Paul, Weiss -- whose analysis of the contract was requested by exective director Grace Blake -- said the language means the Apollo is entitled to about 25 cents of every dollar Sutton takes in, not just his profits.

The show, Sutton acknowledges, took in $26.45 million in the five years of the license agreement. Using that base, and allowing some generous deductions, the foundation's controller still calculated that, for purposes of the agreement, the show made $17.5 million -- thus entitling the Apollo to $4.4 million.

Sutton said the Apollo deserved only $195,000, or $145,000 more than the $50,000 he had paid. Faced with getting $4.4 million or $145,000, Rangel and the board accepted Sutton's number, instead of their own controller's.

Who loves the Apollo? The numbers don't lie.

For the Apollo to regain its luster, it must be freed of a board majority that doesn't take seriously its responsibilities to this national treasure. An increasingly vocal minority is emerging -- finally -- and its members are asking the tough questions. They deserve answers, and they deserve public support.