Before television, before motion pictures and Hollywood, even before radio as we know it, there was vaudeville. Troupes of entertainers crisscrossed the country giving live stage shows. These shows presented a variety of entertainment styles, comedy, dance, drama, vocalists and instrumentalists. Many famous entertainers began their careers on the vaudeville stage, George Burns, Jack Benny, Bert Lahr, Al Jolson, Bob Hope, and numerous tap dancers and musicians. All the shows followed a certain format with a mixture of comedy, dance, magic, solo and group singers and finally a song from an amply endowed female singer as the final act. Hence the expression, "It isn't over until the fat lady sings."
The earth has been chosen as the stage for the playing out of the greatest show, the drama of the foreknowledge of God on the stage of action to play our various parts. We have our the ages, the conflict between good and evil, between Christ and Satan. We have been placed by entrances and our exits, the stage has been set, the props are all in place, the actors have all been chosen for their roles, and the director has cried, "Lights, camera, action"!
This is the longest drama in history for it has been in production for some 6000 years, and it has played to the same audience of heavenly beings and extraterrestrials. Performers come and go, each does his dance or sings his song and then exits the stage. But, the show goes on, and all signs, signs in the sun and moon and stars and earth and sea and sky all foretell that the curtain is about to come down. Time has run out, for the angel has stood up and declared that time should be no more. The angels holding the four winds of strife are beginning to let go. These signs all foretell that the coming of the Master is near, and that the show is almost over. The fat lady is singing.
