Make little of sad theatrical production (8)
I believe the answer is:
downplay
'make little of' is the definition.
'sad theatrical production' is the wordplay.
'sad' becomes 'down' (down can mean sad or unhappy).
'theatrical production' becomes 'play' (I've seen this before).
'down'+'play'='DOWNPLAY'
(Other definitions for downplay that I've seen before include "moderate" , "Treat as unimportant" , "Make light of" , "stress less" , "Not make a lot of" .)