The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word OPERETTA
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
O
P
E
R
E
T
T
A
More clues leading to the result OPERETTA
- About to interrupt unhappy poet with cheers for lyrical work
- Choose to applaud at first before interrupting stage work
- Light musical seen back in latter epoch
- Doctor to repeat work in theatre
- Cast to repeat show
- Silly to repeat work by Gilbert and Sullivan?
- Cast to repeat light-hearted theatrical production
- Musical drama that occurs in theatre before tenors advanced
- Choose tenor before being involved with a show like this?
- Entertainment, retrospective, from latter epoch
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Musical drama" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case musical drama = operetta.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does OPERETTA mean?
OPERETTA noun- A lighter version of opera with a frivolous story and spoken dialogue.