«SNIPPED!»: Shelly Peiken’s new musical gets its first industry presentations in New York

A new original musical titled «SNIPPED!», written by renowned pop songwriter Shelly Peiken together with Adam Gorgoni and Lucy Levinsohn-Berman, will receive its first two industry-only presentations on Thursday, 8 October at Asylum NYC in New York, as BroadwayWorld announces.

The work is directed by Richard Israel, while the book is by Kimberly Arnold, Lucy Levinsohn-Berman and Jill Piwowar. Peiken, known for Christina Aguilera’s hit «What a Girl Wants» and Meredith Brooks’s «Bitch», brings her pop sensibility to the musical theatre stage with a work that, according to the announcement, explores love, marriage, family expectations and the complicated role tradition plays in modern life.

At the centre of the story are Beth and Matthew, a Jewish couple surprised by the arrival of a baby boy, even though the midwife’s chamomile leaves had promised them a girl. Their joy quickly takes an unexpected turn: both families expect the newborn to be circumcised. What begins as a seemingly simple family tradition soon turns into a tug-of-war that tests the couple’s marriage, puts family loyalty on trial and forces them to ask which traditions they want to keep — and which they are ready to leave behind.

The cast of the presentations consists of Geoffrey Cantor («Side Man»), Max Chernin («Parade»), Michael Doliner («Teeth»), Neal Mayer («Les Misérables»), Anne L. Nathan («Ragtime»), Alexander Rios, Jenna Lea Rosen, Bruce Sabath («Company»), Marnina Schon, Rashidra Scott, Jane Seaman («Anything Goes») and Drew Seigla («The Fantasticks»). Jamibeth Margolis is the casting director, James Woods the musical director and Louis B. Crocco the stage manager; the presentations are executive-produced by Lisa Dozier Shacket.