I am seeing Brooklyn tonight, and it is press night. It will be interesting to see the reactions to the show from seasoned theatre goers. I will be sure to write a mini review when I get home
And you think of all of the things you've seen, and you wish that you could live in between ,and you're back again only different than before...
After the Sky.
-Into the Woods (Jack)
It used to be that the major press would all come on opening night and then have only a few hours to write their reviews in order to get into the morning editions of the paper.
Then the rest (weekly magazines, smaller publications) would come on the second & third nights.
As CRJ pointed out, nowadays there are many press nights both before and after the opening. It puts less pressure on the cast and allows the press more time to write their reviews.