Short musical performance (3)
I believe the answer is:
gig
'performance' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'short musical' is the wordplay.
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'musical' becomes 'gigi' (I've seen this before).
'gigi' with its final letter taken away is 'GIG'.
(Other definitions for gig that I've seen before include "Band performance" , "A palindromic single performance" , "Palindromic one-night engagement" , "Date" , "A one-night musical performance" .)