‘Orphans,’ ‘Motown,’ ‘Matilda’ Drawing Well in Preview Performances

The new Broadway production of “Orphans,” Alec Baldwin’s first outing since “30 Rock” ended in January, had a solid start at the box office last week, and the new musicals “Motown” and “Matilda” had strong weeks as well, according to ticket sale data released on Monday by the Broadway League, a trade association of theater owners and producers.

Another new musical, “Hands on a Hardbody,” appeared in real trouble, meanwhile. After opening on March 21 to mixed reviews, the show grossed only $321,043, or 30 percent of the maximum possible amount, unsustainably low numbers for Broadway musicals.

And the Broadway revival of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” closed on Saturday night with a whimper. The play grossed $721,456 for seven performances last week, or 63 percent of the maximum possible - statistics that would be solid for most plays, but were a bit underwhelming for a famous play with a major star (Scarlett Johansson as Maggie). Whether the revival recouped its $3.6 million capitalization is unclear; the play’s lead producer and its spokeswoman did not return messages on Monday.

“Orphans,” which began previews on Tuesday, grossed $659,391, or 64 percent of the maximum amount. “Motown,” meanwhile, grossed $1.2 million, or 86 percent of the maximum possible, evidence of the popularity of the Motown song catalog that is the basis for the show. And “Matilda,” an award-winning import from London, grossed $960,998, or 93 percent of the maximum. All three show open officially later this month.

The new play “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” which received some of the worst reviews of the season, did not particularly suffer as a result of them. In its first full week after opening, the play grossed $411,052, or 46 percent of the maximum possible - within the range of covering the weekly running costs for a typical play.

Most musicals did big business last week because of increased tourism in New York for Easter, Passover, and school vacations. “Wicked” and the Disney shows “The Lion King” and “Newsies” even added an extra ninth performance to take advantage of the potential influx. As a result “Wicked” grossed $2.63 million and “Lion King” grossed $2.39 million - several hundred thousand dollars more than they did in the week before Easter in 2012.

The other Top 5 grossing shows last week were “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” “The Book of Mormon,” and the 25-year-old “Phantom of the Opera.”

Overall Broadway musicals and plays grossed $28.5 million last week, compared to $23.8 million for the comparable week last season and $21.7 million for the previous week.