Using the Calculated Field is a good idea (though agreed, its a fairly unfulfilling solution), I will probably set that up tonight.
Regarding your idea for the "Show Files in Theater View" checkbox. That could work, but it still seems sort of band-aid like. Wouldn't a better option be to just have the ability to select WHICH field you would like shown when showing files in Theater View? It would default to name (as it now is), but being able to switch it to a Calculated Field (or whatever) would be nice, and wouldn't require you to define any weird custom View Schemes.
Another question, is there any way to get Theater View's file list to obey the sorting in Standard View (without putting the sort in the View Scheme itself)? I ask because I often have View Schemes that are sorted correctly in Standard View, but all out of whack in Theater View. Its a pain (and in some cases impossible) to force them to sort the same. In my opinion, it should always sort the same way.