First performance of French object of ridicule falls short (5)
I believe the answer is:
debut
'first performance' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'of french object of ridicule falls short' is the wordplay.
'of french' becomes 'de'.
'object of ridicule' becomes 'butt' (I've seen this before).
'falls short' means to remove the last letter (I've seen 'falling short' mean this).
'butt' with its last letter taken away is 'but'.
'de'+'but'='DEBUT'
(Other definitions for debut that I've seen before include "Aurora" , "First appearance in society" , "Beginning, first performance" , "First appearence as of society girl" , "First appearance, coming out" .)