dress rehearsal
Noun
Meaning
a full uninterrupted rehearsal in costumes shortly before the first performance
Source: WordNetSynonyms
Hypernyms
Examples
Life is not a dress rehearsal.
It's a cliché - but true - that life is not a dress rehearsal. You get to do it once, so do it well.
You'd go in, read the script once for timing and then you would sit around and play games. The sound effects people would come in and we would do a dress rehearsal so they could get the effects and the music cues in place. Then you would wait until you went on the air.
Enjoy life. This is not a dress rehearsal.
Your life is not a dress rehearsal - this is it! It's show time!
A pilot is like the most extensive dress rehearsal you can ever imagine, because the writers are learning about the actors, the actors are learning about the characters.