theatricalize
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to put into dramatic or theatrical form; dramatize.
-
to express or represent in a spectacular or extravagantly histrionic manner.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of theatricalize
First recorded in 1770–80; theatrical + -ize
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But the production from the director Keenan Tyler Oliphant can’t fully theatricalize a text so weighed down by narration.
From New York Times ● May 17, 2022
Instead of trying to theatricalize its story through finding playable action, The Inheritance tries to solve the problem of adapting a literary work through emphasizing its literariness.
From Slate ● Dec. 12, 2019
Unlike in, say, “Stuffed,” in which the comedian Lisa Lampanelli looked at her body issues, there are no attempts to theatricalize the production.
From New York Times ● Jul. 29, 2018
And he was so funny that I did not have to theatricalize my laughter.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 1, 2015
Why theatricalize a work that achieves its excellence through the short story virtues of modesty, compression and understatement?
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2015
A similar professionalism marked “Eterna Iberia,” by Antonio Najarro, though here the style was 20th-century theatricalized flamenco.
From New York Times ● Mar. 18, 2024
Even though Gardiner has theatricalized the typically sparse musical with more ambitious design elements and stagecraft, Smith’s storytelling and vocals still carry the show.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 7, 2022
Cipher Singer-composer Samita Sinha explores a variety of sonic landscapes in this theatricalized work.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2015
The proceedings can seem less like a fresh retelling of a seminal story and more like, despite stabs at grit and terror, a theatricalized, dewy-eyed version of days past.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2015
“Literature that is lifelike in essence, moral without being hypocritical, dramatic without being theatricalized, inspiring without being preachy.”
From In the Heart of a Fool by White, William Allen
That sentence was so clear and so moving, and I started thinking about theatricalizing the idea that one person can literally be your whole world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2025
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
