Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913
Theatricals
The·at′ric·als (·rĭ·kalz), n. pl. Dramatic performances; especially, those produced by amateurs.
Such fashionable cant terms as ‘theatricals,' and ‘musicals,' invented by the flippant Topham, still survive among his confraternity of frivolity. I. Disraeli.