Review: Shiri Maimon Gives all her Heart to Broadway in CHICAGO

With a long list of career achievements as a singer and actress, both on TV, theatre and performing live around the world, it's only natural that being the first Israeli actress to take over a leading role on Broadway, specifically in its longest running American musical, Chicago, is the latest addition to Shiri Maimon's highly impressive resume.

The musical, based on the 1926 Maurine Dallas Watkins Broadway play under the same name, is set in Chicago's 1920's and tells about its corrupted criminal justice system through the connected stories of the two murderesses Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart.

As Roxie, Shiri begins the show with providing a soft, heartwarming and quite innocent character to the role while gradually gaining more confidence and sass, both as Roxie and as a performer, and does so with her famously beautiful voice, leaving no room for doubt that this is the perfect role for her.

Joining her on stage are two other powerhouse actresses, Naomi C. Walley as Velma, who appears to live and breathe her character on stage and does so with great voice and body movement control, and Raena White as Matron "Mama" Morton, who blew the house down both with her incredible and original riffs and soul as well as her brilliant comedic skills.

With the musical's famous music by John Kander, completing Fred Ebb's timeless lyrics, it's always a special treat to see that the additional main character in the show remained that way and was kept on the stage- the orchestra, being not only the music but also most of the set, especially given the three theatres this production shifted between through time.

That being said, given the 22 years this production has been running on Broadway it's wonderful to see that with such iconic artistic features and themes it will continue being relevant and surprisingly relatable.

Tickets for Chicago are available through Telecharge, by calling 212-239-6200, and in-person at the Ambassador Theatre's (219 W. 49th St.; New York, NY) box office. For further details visit Chicago musical.

In addition to Maimon's Broadway debut in the musical she will be joined by its touring Broadway cast and will arrive in Israel this winter in March for a run of seven shows in Tel Aviv's cultural center hall, Heichal HaTarbut.

For tickets and further information about to the upcoming shows in Israel visit Eventim.

Photo credit: Jeremy Daniel