This chapter traces the transformation of some of Gothenburg’s theatres from private enterprises into municipality- and state-run affairs, highlighting the often-conflictual negotiation processes inherent to the making of welfare cities. The making of some of Gothenburg’s theatres into public institutions reveals the different – and sometimes conflicting – claims of turn-of-the-century urban welfarism: public funding was to guarantee that ‘good’ theatre became an economically affordable and thereby a socially integrating institution while at the same time conforming to a certain moral and artistic standard. The chapter uncovers the different forms of urban actorship involved in transforming theatre into a public infrastructure and draws the entanglements between private initiatives, municipal decision-making, state support and the – relatively weak – involvement of Gothenburg’s popular movements. By un-packing the entangled components of emerging urban welfarism, the chapter unravels the welfare city as having its origin and catalyst not only in considerations of ‘the common good’ but just as much in private interests.