command performance

plural command performances

1. archaicA dramatic, musical, or similar entertainment performed before a monarch or other head of state, especially in a circumstance where that ruler has requested or ordered the performance.

   "I've been giving a ‘command’ performance for the president," explained the actor modestly.

   c. 1900, Richard Harding Davis, Billy and the Big Stick

   2 more examples

   Following a 1973 White House command performance and a TV special, Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back, Sinatra made his first nightclub appearance in three years at Las Vegas' Caesars Palace.

   1974 February 4, “People”, in Time

   And he won't let his audience forget that he was part of a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II in June.

   1998 October 4, Alvin Klein, “Theater: A Potential New Star For an Ever-Rarer Art”, in New York Times, retrieved 11 Oct 2011

2. broadlyidiomaticA task, activity, or other assignment which one undertakes in order to satisfy someone in authority, such as an employer.

   Some big client of Arthur's is coming to town, and Sally is supposed to entertain the man's wife. She says it's a command performance.

   2002, Susan Wittig Albert, Indigo Dying, Penguin, published 2004, →ISBN, page 26