City bar panels of wood work in theatre (8)

'city bar panels' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.

'wood work in theatre' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'wood' could be 'elm' (elm is a kind of wood) and 'elm' is located in the answer.
'work' could be 'op' (abbreviation for opus) and 'op' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'ban' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).

'of' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?