The showdown at the Apollo has entered a critical phase, with state Attorney General Dennis Vacco building a convincing case in court. With sworn documents, he is confirming what this page first revealed: Years of cronyism, sweetheart contracts and fiscal finagling have left the famed Harlem site a physical wreck and a financial bust.

Vacco has gone to court to boot Rep. Charles Rangel as chairman of the foundation that has run the state-owned theater into the ground and to dismiss Rangel's cronies from its board of directors. Vacco wants to replace them with a court-appointed receiver. It can't happen soon enough.

Rangel's defense is as lame as it is predictable. "I had no idea the attorney general's reelection campaign was in such bad shape that he would attack the Apollo Theatre to gain votes upstate," Rangel said. The reasoning: Rangel is a Democrat; Vacco, a Republican; it's all just election-year politics.

Pure blather. The latest evidence are the affidavits of two board members and the foundation's controller. They blow Rangel's defense out of the water.

In her affidavit, Evelyn Cunningham, a board member since 1994, wrote that "decisions are made by one faction of the board, virtually behind closed doors, and then foisted upon other board members."

Marianne Spraggins, also on the board since '94, wrote that she had an analysis prepared of the two bids competing for a one-year contract for the rights to the popular "It's Showtime at the Apollo" TV show: "When I attempted to distribute for discussion the spreadsheet analysis, [board member] Lloyd Williams objected to the other directors seeing this information and Chairman Rangel criticized me for attempting to share this information." Spraggins' analysis, prepared by the foundation's controller, Anthony Murrell, went unread.

That's damning enough, but Murrell's own sworn affidavit provides the smoking gun.

It shows how Rangel & Co. put the interests of the producer of "Showtime," Percy Sutton — the congressman's long-time pal — ahead of those of the struggling theater.

When the five-year licensing deal for "Showtime" was set to expire, Murrell prepared an analysis for a three-person committee picked by Rangel. Murrell's conclusion: The theater was due 25% of gross revenues. It meant the foundation was owed $4 million.

But the panel "refused to present my findings to the foundation's board of directors and directed me not to pursue the claim for money owed against [Sutton's] Inner City Theater Group," Murrell wrote.

Murrell's affidavit seals the case. Instead of trying to get every penny it could for the theater — its responsibility under the law — the board took Sutton's side.

That the theater got shafted is all the more galling given the cascade of money. "Showtime" generated $26 million over five years. The syndicator, Western International, took in $6 million. But the Apollo Theatre Foundation — owner of the lucrative trademark — settled for a measly $200,000 from Inner City.

This act of betrayal is why Rangel and his cronies must be forced from the Apollo. It is not about politics. It is about rescuing a world-famous icon.