This is the first general history in English of theatre in Vienna, the one German-speaking city which, in the eighteenth century and for most of the nineteenth, sustained a theatrical life comparable to that of Paris or London. The book covers this theatrical culture from the beginnings of modern theatre in 1776 to the present day, relating it to social, political and intellectual history. It focuses primarily on the most important and productive theatres: the Burgtheater of the nineteenth and early twentieth century and the commercial theatres that housed Viennese dialect comedy and operetta. Particular emphasis is placed on the dramatists and composers from whom the lasting importance of the theatres chiefly derives, and on the ideological pressures reflected in the repertory, in censorship (to which one chapter is devoted), and in press reception. The book draws on original documents including diaries, memoirs and reviews, and is accessible to general readers as well as specialists.