Mention a play to recommend (8)
I believe the answer is:
nominate
'recommend' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'mention a play' is the wordplay.
'play' indicates anagramming the letters.
'mention'+'a'='mentiona'
'mentiona' with letters rearranged gives 'NOMINATE'.
'to' is the link.
(Other definitions for nominate that I've seen before include "Choose" , "give name" , "Specify (person for job)" , "Put forward name for a mention" , "Propose as a candidate" .)