Terry Gross

The music of Frank Loesser has been celebrated and extended by his wife, Jo Sullivan Loesser, since his death in 1969. But her musical relationship with him began earlier, as she starred in the original production of Loesser's The Most Happy Fella.

Singer, musician and folklorist Mick Moloney's new album, McNally's Row of Flats, centers on theater songs by an Irish songwriting team from the late 1800s. In those days, Vaudeville and minstrelsy were giving way to American Musical Theater in New York City.

The new film Thank You for Smoking follows a fictional American tobacco lobbyist as he defends the rights of smokers with double-talk and snappy irony. The satire is based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Buckley.