Were the people who worked in the theatres of the Third Reich willing participants in the Nazi propaganda machine or artists independent of official ideology? To what extent did composers like Richard Strauss and Carl Orff follow Nazi dogma? How did famous directors such as Gustaf Grudgens and Jurgen Fehling react to the strictures of the new regime? Why were Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw among the most performed dramatists of the time? And why did the Nazis sanction Jewish theatre? This book is based on detailed statistical analysis, contemporary press reports, research in German archives and interviews with surviving playwrights, actors and musicians.