The hiring of a theatre in the 'legitimate' sense (6)
I believe the answer is:
rental
'the hiring' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'theatre in the legitimate sense' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'theatre' could be 'nt' (National Theatre) and 'nt' is present in the answer.
'legitimate' could be 'real' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'real' is found in the remaining letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'of a' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rental that I've seen before include "Payment to landlord" , "Hire charge" , "Payment for use -- antler (anag)" , "Money paid for hire" , "To do with a letting" .)