Nightlife

Drinks

Ever since the close of the famous nightclub The Casino-By-The-Sea in Falmouth Heights, those looking for a fun waterfront drinking establishment have frequented The Boathouse (tel. 508/548-7800) at 88 Scranton Ave. on Falmouth Inner Harbor. The Boathouse features live bands in season, from classic rock to jazz, and dancing is popular here. Cover for live shows varies; the place is closed September to mid-May.

Grab a stool at The British Beer Company, 263 Grand Ave., Falmouth Heights (tel. 508/540-9600), and choose from a revolving selection of over 18 drafts from the British Isles as you ponder views of the beach across the street.

God knows whom you'll meet in the rough-and-tumble old The Captain Kidd Bar, 77 Water St., in Woods Hole (tel. 508/548-9206): maybe a lobsterwoman, maybe a Nobel Prize winner. Good grub, too.

Everyone heads to Liam Maguire's Irish Pub, at 273 Main St. in Falmouth (tel. 508/548-0285), for a taste of the Emerald Isle. Live music on weekends year-round, often by Liam himself. No cover.

Grumpy's, at 29 Locust St. (tel. 508/540-3930), is a good old bar/shack with live music (rock, blues, and jazz) Thursday to Saturday nights. Cover is $2 to $10. Look for free passes on the counter at Coffee Obsession nearby.

The great menu with lots of intriguing appetizers at RooBar, 285 Main St., in Falmouth (tel. 508/548-8600), draws a hip crowd.

Film

The Upper Cape's only year-round art-house cinema is Nickelodeon Cinemas, 742 Rte. 151, East Falmouth (tel. 508/563-6510). With six small screens, this is a great alternative to the usual mall movies.

Performance

Off season, The Woods Hole Folk Music Society (tel. 508/540-0320) mounts biweekly concerts October through May (first and third Sun of each month), attracting a real grassroots crowd to Community Hall on Water Street, by the Eel Pond drawbridge. General admission is $8; discounts are available for members, seniors, and children.

The Cape Cod Theatre Project (tel. 508/457-4242; www.capecodtheatreproject.org) is a playwrights' workshop open to the public. These staged play readings are performed for just a few weeks in July, usually at the Woods Hole Community Hall. The play choices tend to be provocative and elicit strong opinions. The rest of the year the talent behind these productions is most likely strutting the boards in New York City. Call for a schedule. Admission is $20.

Starting at about 7:30pm on Thursday evenings in July and August, the spirited volunteers of the Falmouth Town Band swing through big-band numbers as small fries (and some oldsters) dance about. Concerts are held at the Band Shell, on Scranton Avenue next to Falmouth Inner Harbor, and are free. On Friday nights in summer free concerts are held in Peg Noonan Park on Main Street; you might hear anything from a jazz quartet to a folk singer. On Wednesday nights in summer, also in Peg Noonan Park, there are free children's movies shown on a big screen at dusk. Call the Falmouth Chamber of Commerce at tel. 508/548-8500 for details.

The top talent from college drama departments across the country form the College Light Opera Company (tel. 508/548-0668; www.collegelightopera.com), which puts on a fast-paced summer repertory from late June through August. So winning is the work of these 32 young actors and 17 musicians (some of them ultimately Broadway-bound) that the house is usually booked solid, so call well ahead or keep your fingers crossed for a scattering of singles. Its venue, the Highfield Theatre, on the Depot Avenue Extension off North Main Street in Falmouth, is a former horse barn and for the past half-century has been a terrific straw-hat theater. Performances are held Tuesday to Saturday at 8pm; there's also a Thursday matinee at 2pm. Tickets are $30.