demotheatricsnoun.
That part of a technical demonstration that has been faked in order to gloss over a problem or to simulate a feature to be added later.
Example Citation:
"What Microsoft appeared to show at the House of Blues (you can never tell for sure at such events what's real and what's demotheatrics) was a whole new level of digital audio performance."
—Robert X. Cringely, "I Want My MP3!," PBS Online
Notes:
A nod of appreciation to Word Spy fan Ralph Thomas Russell for giving me the heads up on this word. -Paul
