There's a lot of sleight-of-hand going on in theater/film/music reviews that readers take for granted, but which drive writers crazy. First, reviews need to be zippy and they need to kill. Like music criticism, they need to 1) inform us about the subject matter (in this case, the play) in a language appropriate to the genre and which doesn't put us to sleep 2) sufficiently address the cast, direction, music and scene staging (if extraordinary), history of the play (if it's a revival, etc.) 3) include any outstanding moments/performances. Afterwards, as readers we should get enough of a sense of the play that we can make up our own minds whether or not we want to see it. (This of course is a trick: the writer has cleverly shaped a story that enables readers to see only what s/he wanted us to).
For an example of great theater criticism that hits all these notes and more, take a look at NY Post's chief drama critic Elisabeth Vincentelli's theater reviews (and it's not just because she's my friend):
Vincentelli NYPost
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