Speaking of bad ideas, it would be one if you didn’t pull some strings to see Cate Blanchett in the last week of Hedda Gabler at BAM. I don’t say this because it’s a great performance—it’s not, despite what you’ve read—but because the promise it carries of future greatness. Blanchett is at once fierce and graceful; even the way she walks, cutting across the stage with a cape streaming behind her, commands attention. Her powerful, delicate voice is an instrument made for the stage, and her looks—well, Keats could do them justice. A director who knew how to focus her extravagant talent might steer her through any of the canonical roles. Now if only there were, say, a major Shakespeare production on the Public’s summer calendar that needed a Lady Macbeth. . . .

Ring of Fire
Created by Richard Maltby Jr. Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

Grey Gardens
Lyrics by Michael Korie. Music by Scott Frankel. Book by Doug Wright. Playwrights Horizons/ Mainstage Theater. Through April 23.

Related:

• Archive: “Theater Reviews”
• Articles by Jeremy McCarter
• Table of Contents: Mar 27, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!