Eye’s taking in historical period of musical theatre (8)
I believe the answer is:
operatic
'eye's taking in historical period of musical theatre' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'eye's taking in historical period' is the wordplay.
'eye' becomes 'optic' (synonyms).
'taking in' is an insertion indicator.
'historical period' becomes 'era' (I've seen this in another clue).
'optic' enclosing 'era' is 'OPERATIC'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for operatic that I've seen before include "To do with music-drama" , "histrionic" , "Irate cop (anag)" , "music drama" , "Relating to musical drama" .)