Theatrical love movie set around eastern desert (8)
I believe the answer is:
operatic
'theatrical' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'love movie set around eastern desert' is the wordplay.
'love' becomes 'o' (love means zero in tennis).
'movie' becomes 'pic' (short for picture).
'set around' is an insertion indicator.
'eastern' becomes 'e'.
'desert' becomes 'rat' (abandon treacherously).
'e'+'rat'='erat'
'pic' going around 'erat' is 'peratic'.
'o'+'peratic'='OPERATIC'
(Other definitions for operatic that I've seen before include "Like something of Wagner" , "Of recitative and arias" , "To do with music-drama" , "Relating to musical drama" , "Wagnerian" .)