Make light of miserable drama (8)
I believe the answer is:
downplay
'make light of' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'miserable drama' is the wordplay.
'miserable' becomes 'down'.
'drama' becomes 'play' ('play' can be a synonym of 'drama').
'down'+'play'='DOWNPLAY'
(Other definitions for downplay that I've seen before include "Treat as unimportant" , "Not make a lot of" , "moderate" , "Avoid promotion" , "Make light of" .)