dress rehearsal

dress rehearsal (plural dress rehearsals)

1. (theater) A rehearsal prior to a public spectacle, where all the performers are in costume, in order to test all aspects of the production by closely reproducing the actual conditions of a performance.

   We've got three dress rehearsals before the opening night to prepare ourselves for any potential technicalities.

2. The final rehearsal before a performance, whether or not costumes or performance dress are worn.
3. (by extension) Any complex activity that serves to prepare for a more important iteration of it later.

   Although the train derailment ended up not being very serious, the emergency services' response served as a dress rehearsal in case of a much worse disaster.

   • 1960 December, “The Glasgow Suburban Electrification is opened”, in Trains Illustrated, page 712:

     Sunday, November 6, was spent in a second full-scale dress rehearsal of the complete weekday electric timetable, [...] during which the public were invited to make their first trial of the trains—and 15,000 did so.

   • 2024 April 12, Shane Goldmacher, quoting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, “Ocasio-Cortez Never Steered Money to a Key Arm of Her Party. Until Now.”, in The New York Times‎:

     And if anybody thinks that that was not a dress rehearsal for what they may try to attempt in January of 2025, I’m sorry to say, but I think that’s a very naïve assumption.

• wet dress rehearsal