Leading way with e.g. drama in Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme? (7)
I believe the answer is:
upstart
'bourgeois gentilhomme?' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'leading way with e' is the wordplay.
'leading' becomes 'up' (up can mean winning a sports match).
'way' becomes 'st' (abbreviation for street).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'e' becomes 'art' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'up'+'st'+'art'='UPSTART'
'g drama in le' acts as a link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for upstart that I've seen before include "Pipsqueak" , "Arrogant and presumptuous person" , "Person suddenly risen in world, and arrogant" , "Nouveau-riche" , "Nouveau riche" .)