The Imaginary Invalid On Broadway
The Imaginary Invalid gets off to a stunning start in the new production at Roundabout’s Todd Haimes Theatre on Forty-Second Street.
The gaunt figure of Pantalone, his face obscured by his commedia dell’arte mask, appears on a bare dark stage and announces the start of the show with three sharp raps of his staff on the stage.
Immediately a group of masked performers appear in black costumes that signify the role of il dottore (the doctor), their white ruffs lit with tiny white lights. They perform a wordless ballet using long red ribbons to let us know that they are mercilessly bleeding their patient Pantalone.
Pulling on those same ribbons they pull into view the elements of a lavish seventeenth century sitting room. First the dramatically foreshortened walls and then a coffered ceiling descending from above.
With a final flourish and lighting cue, we find ourselves in the home of the wealthy hypochondriac Argan, who languishes in a sort of Louis XIV La-Z-Boy center stage.
It’s a stunning theatrical tour de force courtesy of director Brandon J. Dirden, set designer Beowulf Boritt, lighting designer Allen Lee Hughes, composer John Gromada, and movement director Lorenzo Pisoni. It receives a well-deserved round of applause.
This is Molière’s Le Malade Imaginare, adapted by and starring the redoubtable Bill Irwin as Argan. Starting with a literal translation by Doug Skinner, his collaborator on 1983’s The Regard of Flight, Irwin has whittled the three-act original down to a brisk ninety minutes.
The Imaginary Invalid is, more than 350 years after its debut, a still stinging satire on the medical profession. Wealthy, with a hot, younger wife (Crystal A. Dickinson), Argan believes he is very ill, an illusion encouraged by his doctors (Brooks Ashmanskas, who has great fun playing two of them).
Argan is eager to marry off his beautiful daughter Angelique (Ava Lalezarzadeh) to the idiot doctor son (Hiram Delgado) of one of his doctors, thinking that having a doctor in the family might lighten the cost of his treatments, which seem to consist largely of frequent enemas. Of course Angelique is in love with Cleante (Daniel Croix Henderson), a fact that causes them both no little distress.
Thanks to the wiles of his savvy housemaid, Toinette (Rachel Bloom) and the intercession of his brother Beralde (Dylan Baker), Argan is convinced to break the spell cast, not only by his gold digging wife but by the medical industrial complex and make a remarkable transformation.
Irwin is a great admirer of Molière, which is not surprising considering that he is in many respects a lineal descendant of the great French farceur. Indeed, Irwin has dedicated much of his career to preserving the techniques of commedia dell’arte and clowning that informed Molière’s theatre.
While his Imaginary Invalid fails to sustain the high level of excellence suggested by its opening sequence, it is not without its virtues.
For starters the riotously colorful costumes of Karen Perry and the wigs by Nikiya Mathis that set them off are an absolute hoot, especially the outfits that distinguish Ashmanskas as Doctors Purgon and Diafoirus. Having seen no other shows on Broadway this season, I feel that I can safely predict that Perry and Boritt will walk off with Tonys in their respective categories.
Dirden’s direction pays homage to the slapstick, anything-for-a-laugh spirit of commedia. If some performances occasionally stray too far in the direction of self-indulgent hamminess for my taste, that was a reservation not shared by many others in the audience.
There are compensating moments of high comedy. When Argan’s brother suggests he cheer himself up by going to see a play by Molière, Irwin erupts in an extended rant against that rapscallion playwright, a blight on French theatre. Molière it seems was pulling off meta-theatrical gags centuries before they became hip.
Fun fact: Molière himself played Argan in the original production. Not so fun fact: during his final performance in the role Molière collapsed on stage from a tubercular haemorrhage and died a few hours later.
Within the context of the heightened comedic style adopted by the director, there are some strong performances. Bloom makes an auspicious Broadway debut as the wily Toinette. The sustained entrance applause she received testifies to the following she earned from the television series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
Ashmanskas’ rococo renditions of both doctors are admirable in their excess and Baker is solid as the brother.
Then there is Irwin. He is both the most restrained performer and the most accomplished. Those who have followed his impressive career will note delicious echoes of the vaudevillian schtick he has perfected over the decades, and at seventy-six he is still remarkably supple.
Whatever else it is, Irwin’s Imaginary Invalid is a love letter. Like John Barrymore’s Oscar Jaffe in the film Twentieth Century, above all he loves the theatre and the wonderful people in it. But Irwin really means it.
The Imaginary Invalid continues at the Todd Haimes Theatre through November 22, 2026. For more information and to purchase tickets visit the Roundabout Theatre website.
For a complete index of reviews CLICK HERE.
Don’t miss another review or blog post! SUBSCRIBE HERE
