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With a penchant for constantly reinventing his sound, Andrew Bird is an unusual combination of songwriter, violinist, guitarist, vocalist and professional whistler. On his new CD, The Mysterious Production of Eggs, he plays virtually every instrument.

Every November and December, arts organizations around the country compete for the lucrative "family holiday entertainment" dollar. A production based on Irving Berlin's tunes is aiming to be musical theater's newest seasonal tradition.

Pared down to an efficient duo, Earlimart completed its new record, Hymn and Her, in just over four weeks, as opposed to the three-year production of its last project. The band plays its straightforward and intimate California pop tunes in a session from WXPN.

Back in 1971, college student Ted Chapin got extra credit for working on the Broadway-bound Stephen Sondheim musical, Follies. Thirty years later, Chapin has written about that experience in the book, Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical 'Follies', which details the ups and downs of what became a controversial production. Hear NPR's Liane Hansen and Ted Chapin.

His new film is No Such Thing. Its about a monster and a young woman who finds him. According to the films production notes, the monster has been in existence since the dawn of time and nothing can kill him. Along comes Beatrice, a young girl who makes friends with the monster and together they seek out the doctor who can finally end the monsters life. Hartley's work includes Trust, Henry Fool, Flirt, and Amateur.

Eleven new clothing factories open in Lesotho, making the kingdom Africa's largest exporter of textiles to the United States. The African Growth and Opportunity Act -- U.S. trade legislation lifting tariffs on hundreds of products from sub-Saharan Africa -- is credited with transforming Lesotho's economy. NPR's Jason Beaubien reports.

He's been called the D.W. Griffith of stage shows. His lighting and stagecraft has turned musical acts into major productions. And he got to speak on stage at Woodstock. Now, 64-year-old Edward "Chip" Monck is being honored with the stage and lighting industry's highest honor, the 2004 Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award.

Soprano Deborah Voigt has just released Obsessions, her first solo recording of Strauss and Wagner arias. The release coincided with her highly publicized firing from a Covent Garden production because of her weight.

As reports show the U.S. economy added 308,000 jobs in March, Republicans on Capitol Hill generally claim the numbers vindicate the GOP's tax policies. Democrats have conflicting reactions: relief that Americans are finding jobs, but criticism that job production is still not good enough. NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports.

The Food and Drug Administration says patients on some popular antidepressants should be closely monitored for warning signs of suicide. The agency asked the makers of 10 drugs to add the caution to their product labels. In changing its requirement, the FDA stressed that it is not yet clear that the drugs actually lead to suicide. NPR's Richard Knox reports.

Langewiesche is a national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, and he is the author of a number of books including Inside the Sky: A Meditation on Flight. His new book is The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos and Crime. It's about the unregulated world of the open sea where some 40,000 ships travel carrying raw materials and products. Their crews are often poorly trained and poorly paid. The ships are vulnerable to accidents, piracy and terrorists.

Pat Dowell profiles Canadian Director Guy Maddin, whose new movie, Pages from a Virgin's Diary, is a screen adaptation of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's production of Dracula. Maddin describes his movie making technique as "primitive," because he strives to give his story telling a dream-like effect. He was motivated to make this movie by curiosity about elements of female sexuality and male jealousy in the Dracula story.

Three questions for the bronze medal winner about people stealing other people's ideas or products.

Host Lisa Simeone talks to Terry Ryan about her new book The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less. Terry's mother Evelyn entered hundreds of contests during the advertising heyday of the 1950s and 60s. The contests usually required a short poem praising a product, and sometimes the prizes were quite substantial. Ryan won thousands of dollars and hundreds of prizes during her long "career" as a jingle writer.

, best known for their kitchen appliances and outdoor gas grills. The company seems to be on the road to recovery thanks to "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap, a flamboyant chief executive known for rescuing ailing corporations. Sunbeam plans to cut its workforce in half, from twelve down to six thousand, and drop most of its ancillary product line.

In a format-breaking report, John Biewen reports on the controversy over the use of genetically modifed seeds in India. Despite the fact that the failure of a crop can lead to a farmer's suicide, many poor Indian farmers oppose the use of genetically modified seeds which might improve the chances of raising a successful crop. There is fear of the multi-national corporations selling the seeds. Many of the companies have included Indians in their research, development and marketing of the products.

Jazz pianist James P. Johnson -- the "father of stride" -- once collaborated with poet Langston Hughes on De Organizer, an opera describing union organizing among blacks in the 1920s. For 60 years, the work was forgotten. But a production of the opera opens Tuesday in Detroit. Celeste Headlee of member station WDET reports.

In an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer last night, singer Whitney Houston said that she was digitally altered to look less thin during a Michael Jackson tribute concert. For years, tabloids have hounded Houston for alleged drug used and supposed weight disorders. Jacki Lyden explores with Kelly Port, a visual effects supervisor for Digital Domain, a production company in Venice, Calif., the different ways her image could have been manipulated.

Her latest film is David Mamets State and Main. She also starred in Mamets earlier films The Spanish Prisoner and The Winslow Boy. Pidgeon is also known for her work on stage. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London and appeared in many plays including the London production of Speed the Plow, and The Old Neighborhood on Broadway. Pidgeon is also a singer/songwriter. Her latest CD is called Four Marys.

Robert talks with Judith E. Daykin, President of City Center in Manhattan, about the discovery of valuable scripts in a closet that may not have been opened for forty years. The scripts were in Max Liebman's closet. Liebman was a producer of the early television comedy series Your Show of Shows, The Admiral Broadway Revue and other television productions. He died in 1981, and the closet in his office was closed and painted shut.