Work in empty theatre following musical drama (7)
I believe the answer is:
operate
'work' is the definition.
(I know that work can be written as operate)
'empty theatre following musical drama' is the wordplay.
'empty' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'following' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'musical drama' becomes 'opera' (I've seen this in another clue).
'theatre' with its centre taken out is 'te'.
'te' put after 'opera' is 'OPERATE'.
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for operate that I've seen before include "Work - perform surgery" , "Make function" , "Work, run" , "Make to work" , "effect" .)