Dramatic recital that almost worked (10)
I believe the answer is:
theatrical
'dramatic' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'recital that almost worked' is the wordplay.
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'worked' indicates an anagram.
'recital'+'that'='recitalthat'
'recitalthat' with its final letter taken away is 'recitaltha'.
'recitaltha' is an anagram of 'THEATRICAL'.
(Other definitions for theatrical that I've seen before include "overdramatic" , "Showbiz" , "Stagy" , "Artificial and exaggerated" , "Relating to acting/actors" .)