Entertainment

They’re hot tickets

‘Evita” and “Newsies” are the clear front-runners in the spring’s box- office sweepstakes.

“Evita” — which is being revived on Broadway for the first time since Hal Prince’s celebrated 1979 production — has wracked up nearly $10 million in advance ticket sales. Monday night’s first preview was sold out, with lots of whooping and cheering greeting the first few notes of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s score.

The songs still pack a dramatic wallop after all these years.

Tuesday’s sold-out preview was canceled due to a flood at the theater. I guess Argentina did cry for her, after all.

Rice was in town last week to check out the show, which is being staged by Tony Award winner Michael Grandage (“Red”). Rice was, I’m told, pleased with the way it’s going.

Lloyd Webber arrives today and will see the show later this week. Mick Potter, the sound designer, better be on top of things: His Lordship has a keen ear and doesn’t suffer sound glitches lightly.

Around Broadway the talk is that Ricky Martin, who plays Che, is the draw here. I’m sure he’s got fans, but my sense is that the show itself is the attraction.

Everybody can sing a song or two from “Evita,” and the fact that it hasn’t opened on Broadway in 33 years has only added to the anticipation.

As for “Newsies,” Disney appears to have a winner on its hands. The advance is said to be about $7 million, which is very respectable for a show that’s slipping in without a lot of fanfare. The show has a snappy script by Harvey Fierstein, a peppy score by Alan Menken and an even peppier leading man — Jeremy Jordan.

Of the new musicals, “Newsies” is the only family show, which will be a real advantage when the tourists start flooding the city in May and June. It also has, rather surprisingly, support from the critics, including The Post’s Frank Scheck and the Times’ David Rooney, who went bananas for all those cute newsboys in their jaunty caps when the show played the Paper Mill Playhouse last year.

It sounds like the all-male “Annie” to me — and “Annie” ran six years on Broadway.

Given the weak field of new musicals — “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” will be nominated for several Tonys — “Newsies” has to be considered a contender for Best Musical.

On the straight-play front, there’s nothing dead about “Death of a Salesman.” The production, directed by Mike Nichols, is selling $100,000 worth of tickets a day, though over the past few weeks you could still snag a seat at the TKTS booth. None of the other nonmusical plays is doing anything like that kind of business, though I suspect that once word of mouth kicks in for the brilliantly funny “One Man, Two Guvnors,” tickets will be hard to come by. (Tip: Get yours now.)

Over at “Ghost,” now in technical rehearsals at the Lunt-Fontanne, the money people are nervous nellies. The advance is about $4 million, which isn’t enough to insulate this London import from what are sure to be, at best, mixed reviews. (The scariest “boo” in the theater is the one that comes from a critic.) The producers had hoped the title would bring in the crowds, but I guess the movie isn’t as beloved as they thought.

Maybe they should rename the show “Casper, the Friendly Ghost.”

Where things are really dicey, however, is at the St. James, which is in danger of becoming a flophouse. It’s been home to a string of financial losers — “Finian’s Rainbow,” “American Idiot” and the Harry Connick Jr. fiasco “On a Clear Day (Everybody Left at Intermission).”

So far, “Leap of Faith” isn’t turning the tide for this grand old theater. Sources say a “leap year” marketing ploy offering $29 tickets brought in a grand total of $11,000.

Ads on the front of the theater read: “Get ready for a miracle on 44th Street!”

The miracle will be that “Leap of Faith” lasts through the summer.