Elizabethan public performances have long been an object of study for cultural and political historians. However, the economic and social aspects of these performances are still a marginal field of research. This paper intends to analyze the Elizabethan drama as a commercial activity (mainly its funding and its investors) through a case study: the construction and operation of the Theatre, the first amphitheater built in Elizabethan London. First, it reveals that drama was an economic activity that responded to a strong demand from Londoners for entertainment. Moreover, this activity appears to have been based on heavy investment and mobilized financial and legal tools that were commonly used in the London money market (loans, bonds, and mortgages). Such a study is made possible by the conservation of legal records produced during several lawsuits between various investors over the possession of the amphitheaters, including the Theatre, and also over the right to the receipts collected before the representations. This legal documentation, previously neglected by historians, must be jointly used with the accounts books kept by some investors. This paper reveals that economic logic played a much more important role than previously thought by historians in the development of public drama in London.