theatrical

comparative more theatrical · superlative most theatrical

1. Of or relating to the theatre.

   1 more example

   12 July 2012, Sam Adams, AV Club Ice Age: Continental Drift The matter of whether the world needs a fourth Ice Age movie pales beside the question of why there were three before it, but Continental Drift feels less like an extension of a theatrical franchise than an episode of a middling TV cartoon, lolling around on territory that’s already been settled.

   Synonyms: dramatic, histrionic, scenic, stagy, theatric, thespian

2. Fake and exaggerated.

   The ceremony and its scene were characterised by that high sense of the theatrical which has marked the activities of the Third Reich.

   1941 July, “The Armistice Coach”, in Railway Magazine, page 317

   Synonyms: affected, stagy, affected, effete, fey, recherché, hoity-toity, overrefined

plural theatricals

1. A stage performance, especially one by amateurs.
2. A commercially produced film to be shown in movie theaters.

   Release schedules were stepped up so that virtually all of the summer theatricals are coming to video before year's end.

   2005, The Hollywood Reporter, page 61

3. A person who works in theatre.

   Both of her parents were theatricals — that is, the father played the violin and the mother attempted to dance but later she dropped the pretence.

   1945, George Tabori, Beneath the Stone, page 177