THEATER

When I was very young I dreamt about the time when the celluloid characters of movies would somehow be "atomized" and then be distributed to homes where they could be reconstructed in the middle of the room, where the viewers could watch them from any angle. 

That dream was somewhat realized with the advent in the 1950's of "Theater in the Round."  

In such a theater, the actors would perform on a round stage, surrounded on all sides by viewers.  This may have been tough on the  actors, but the public loved it.

In the last years of the 1950's, The Cape Cod Melody Tent opened in Hyannis, near the Kennedy Family Compound.  My wife and I tried to visit it every Saturday night.

All of the offerings were musical comedies that were Broadway hits we loved, such as:

Bye Bye Birdie

Bells Are Ringing

Guys and Dolls

Flower Drum Song

As "regulars" we were seated close to the stage.

UFO sightings were quite common back then and on our first Melody Tent visit we saw one on our way home.

It was a very dark evening, with a deep Cape Cod  fog laying over everything.  As we exited the bridge over the Cape Cod Canal, we saw it.  A large round object with encircling lights. We were astounded and kind of scared, but we continued on, drawn by curiosity.  The object got larger and larger until, suddenly, the dense fog lifted to reveal a giant water tower!

We moved to Maryland in 1960 and lost track of that theater.  I hope it survived.

Meanwhile, if you have a "helper" called Alexa, and if you want to hear the Broadway cast sing any of the shows I mentioned, just say for example:

"Alexa play the music from the Broadway musical 'Bells are Ringing.' "

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ENJOY!