Across a Crowded Room Fellowship New Musical: For Love or Funny (6 PM)

For more than a decade, the Across a Crowded Room incubator program series at the Library for the Performing Arts has created a space for musical theater artists to meet, collaborate, and form connections. Since 2022, the Library for the Performing Arts has allowed program participants to apply for an Across a Crowded Room fellowship, which gives the artists money to develop their 20-minute musical works into 90-minute pieces. Please join us for the first public presentation of one such piece, For Love or Funny, by fellowship recipients Sonya Hayden and Megan Loughran!

For Love or Funny is a classic musical comedy which reimagines the Three Stooges as a trio of sisters: Mo, Mary, and Curly. In a goofy, slapstick version of 1930s Brooklyn, the sisters’ family-owned clothing store is about to close—unless they can somehow get a whopping $500 by the next day. When they learn that the cops are offering that exact reward for the capture of a notorious robber, they hatch a harebrained scheme to catch him themselves. Along the way, our trio must rely on their bonds of sisterhood to succeed, while navigating mix-ups, mayhem, mistaken identities, and more.

As a female writing duo, fellowship winners Loughran and Hayden are excited to put a modern twist on old-school comedy and center bold female characters who get to land the punches and the punchlines.

Please note we will be hosting two performances this day, at 2:00 PM and at 6:00 PM.

SEATING POLICY | Programs are free and open to all, but registration is requested. Check-in line forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. Five minutes before the advertised start time, all seats are released, regardless of registration, to our patrons in the stand-by line. If you arrive after the program starts, you will be seated at the discretion of our front-of-house staff.

STANDBY LINE | If registration is sold out or has ended, do not fret! We welcome you to come to the Library regardless of registration status and wait in our standby line, which forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Five minutes before the program starts, all remaining seats are released. While this is not guaranteed, we will do our best to get you into any of our programs.

ASSISTIVE LISTENING AND ASL | ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing [email protected].

BRUNO WALTER POLICY | Please note that any unoccupied seat will be released five minutes before the show begins and holding seats for anyone beyond that is prohibited. There is no food or drink allowed inside the venue.

AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING | Programs may be photographed and recorded by and at the discretion of the Library for the Performing Arts and will post signs indicating as such. If you would prefer your image not be captured, please let us know and we can seat you accordingly. Attending any program indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any and all purposes of the New York Public Library.

PRESS | Please send all press inquiries to Alex Teplitzky at [email protected]. Please note that all recording, including professional video recordings, are prohibited without expressed consent from the Library.

Host or Publisher New York Public Library for the Performing Arts