The Grand Theft Orchestra is composed of Amanda Palmer, Michael McQuilken on drums, guitarist Chad Raines, and Jherek Bischoff on bass.

[11] The band regularly switches instruments during their live performance, including in their version of The Dresden Dolls's song "Missed Me".

[14] The song "Do It With a Rockstar" was released on a limited basis to promote the album in June 2012,[15] followed by "Trout Heart Replica", "Want It Back" and "The Killing Type".

Amanda Palmer has also released lyric videos for every song on the main disc of Theatre Is Evil on her YouTube channel.

In June 2012, Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra began with a short six-date stint of small club shows throughout Europe and the US, beginning in Berlin and ending in Boston.

[23] A controversy arose at the start of the full-scale tour, when Palmer crowdsourced volunteer horn and string players among her fans to back the Grand Theft Orchestra onstage for a few songs in each city.

[24] Palmer had explained that most of the Kickstarter money was actually spent on covering the cost of creating the album, producing and shipping the rewards, and setting up the tour.

[24] On September 14, 2012, following an article in the New York Times[26][27] Palmer wrote on her blog that she considered the issue to be about artists' choice more than anything else.

"[37][38] Kate Mossman of The Guardian wrote: "Theatre Is Evil feels like sitting on the bed of your tattooed, far cooler cousin 30 years ago, while she tells you 'all you need to know' about music.

It is a track-by-track cover of Theatre Is Evil (excluding the Intro and Intermission) performed solely by Palmer on piano.