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:
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
I did everything I could to theatricalize him in the extreme.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 29, 2016
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
“It presents itself as almost the impossible task: to theatricalize a sprawling and unruly wilderness,” said Joe Tantalo, who is directing.
From New York Times ● Oct. 2, 2014
It’s an inspiring story of a gifted athlete’s heroics on and off the court, but the summary nature of so much material sometimes lends the impression of a theatricalized book report.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2023
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
“The Mahabharata,’' Brook’s epic production created with co-director Marie-Hélène Estienne and dramatist Jean-Claude Carrière, theatricalized for Western audiences the vast Hindu epic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2022
Jacqueline Kennedy has probably been the most often theatricalized, but in 2015, Michael John LaChiusa’s musical “First Daughter Suite,” building on his “First Lady Suite” from 1993, found real pathos even in Barbara Bush.
From New York Times ● Oct. 12, 2020
“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 William Allen White
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.
