A brief review:
The farce of “False and True” is a wretched thing. To speak Johnsonically it is a congeries of inexplicable nonsense.
And another:
The Lady of the Rock is the production of Holcroft. Had he not himself given it to the world as his own, we should have thought it a libel upon his understanding to ascribe it to his pen.
From a longer review of Thomas Morton’s Speed the Plough:
We do not think that love at first sight, which is in reality nothing more than Forwardness indulging itself in the airs of Romance, and Prurience calling in Fate to sanction its indelicacy, ought to be clothed in such a respectable and captivating dress as our author has bestowed upon it in this play.
The Mirror of Taste and Dramatic Censor was not the first theatre magazine in the United States, but it was very early. Published in Philadelphia in 1810, it looked to England for the majority of its content (it seems that way in the bits I’ve read, at least), but also discussed plays produced in Philadelphia and New York.
It is quite enjoyably snarky in places, though, and thoroughly readable. Watch for it on Project Gutenburg in a few months — or sign up at DP and read it there!