The invaluable Theatre Development Fund often provides free tickets to students. It’s vital, of course, to reveal the magic of live theater early to youngsters. Sometimes, however, the shows can turn out to be stinkers and scarcely a positive experience for impressionable youth. Long ago I was escorted to a student matinee of Dame Judith Anderson’s unwise attempt to play Hamlet in tights, and the awful spectacle nearly killed my early interest in theater. Readers may regret I did not remain disaffected, but let’s not digress. Rather let’s hope TDF and similar agencies will sponsor busloads of youngsters to attend Roundabout Theatre Company’s exuberant production of The Imaginary Invalid.
Opening on Thursday at the company’s Todd Haimes Theatre mainstage, Moliere’s 1673 comedy about a hypochondriacal tyrant and his medical enablers bows very broadly indeed on Broadway in a fresh adaptation and an extravagant staging.
The great American clown, Bill Irwin, not only has crafted this trim 95-minute version of the French classic but assumes its central figure as Monsieur Argan, a curmudgeonly fellow first seen totting up his pile of medical bills while griping, “Can one afford to be sick?” Fidgeting with his fancy brocade dressing gown and nightcap, this wealthy old boy proves to be the unwitting victim of his unscrupulous second wife Beline (Crystal A. Dickinson) and a pack of quacks whose ministrations appear likelier to kill than cure him. So much does miserly Argan want to keep a doctor nearby that he tries to force his daughter Angelique (Ava Lalezarzadeh) to wed the idiotic son of his chief physician.
[Read Melissa Rose Bernardo’s ★★★★☆ review here.]
Fortunately for Angelique, her sweetheart Cleante (Daniel Croix Henderson), and especially for Argan, there is Toinette (Rachel Bloom), the smart, saucy servant found in many a Moliere comedy, who disguises herself in doctor drag to deliver a happy ending. Argan’s sensible brother (Dylan Baker) serves the story as a mostly ignored voice of reason.
Curiously, the role of crabby Argan is not entirely suited to Irwin’s joyful nature and abilities. Irwin is usually confined to a Louis XIV-style recliner and cannot deploy completely his superb physical skills. Later in the story at least, Irwin gets to play dead not once but twice. Instead, Irwin depicts the querulous gent mostly through a variety of comical voices and facial tics as Argan reacts with awe to a parade of medical charlatans marching into his boudoir dressed to kill in elaborately beautiful costumes designed by Karen Perry. Brooks Ashmanskas drolly sports impressive wigs and even grander attitudes as two doctors; one who proclaims ancient theories and another who pronounces doom upon his patient. More astonishing are Hiram Delgado’s transformations – and sumptuous attire – in his mad portrayals of three different men of varying degrees of stupidity.
A fine actor making his Broadway debut as a director, Brandon J. Dirden encourages big, flamboyant performances by the company and gets them, especially from Delgado as a brainless fop in a Prince Valiant coiffeur and Dickinson as the scheming wanna-be widow who uses her bosom as a not-so-secret weapon. By all means let’s note how the hair and wig design by Nikiya Mathis lends visual humor to the characters.
Pacing the comedy’s action quickly but not rushing it, Dirden and Lorenzo Pisoni, credited for movement direction, provide nicely choreographed opening and closing sequences. Designer Beowulf Boritt’s stylized setting for Argan’s abode pays a pretty homage to 17th century French theatricals, flushed with color through Allen Lee Hughes’ lighting. Oh, yes, the offstage flushes and noises related to the enemas and flatulence of this imaginary invalid’s regime are neatly provided by sound designer John Gromada, whose lightly Baroque music is far more elegant. A deluxe affair, Roundabout’s rendition of Moliere’s comedy is just what the doctor ordered to brighten autumn in New York.
The Imaginary Invalid opened October 22, 2026, at the Todd Haimes Theatre and runs through November 22. Tickets and information: roundabouttheatre.org
