Bill Irwin — America's foremost stage clown, by most accounts — wrote his own adaptation of this Molière farce and plays the lead: Argan, a bedridden hypochondriac scheming to marry his daughter off to a doctor so he'll never have to pay for another house call. Brandon J. Dirden makes his Broadway directorial debut at the helm. It runs ninety minutes with no intermission. Closing soon at the Todd Haimes.
Irwin laces the adaptation with sly anachronisms — references to primary care physicians among them — so this isn't a museum piece. Rachel Bloom, making her Broadway debut as the maid Toinette, breaks the fourth wall with the kind of meta-comedy that runs in her bones. The press has been divided — audiences who surrender to a broad, physical comic style tend to leave happy; those wanting more consistent wit have been cooler. We haven't weighed in with a review of our own.
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In Molière’s best loved comedy, Monsieur Argan is a notorious hypochondriac whose nonexistent illnesses blind him to the con men and women (his new wife) who prey on his fears to fatten their purses. His plan: marry his daughter to a doctor so he'll have free round-the-clock on-site healthcare for the rest of his life. In Molière’s best loved comedy, Monsieur Argan is a notorious hypochondriac whose nonexistent illnesses blind him to the con men and women (his new wife) who prey on his fears to fatten their purses. His plan: marry his daughter to a doctor so he'll have free round-the-clock on-site healthcare for the rest of his life. Newly translated by Mirabelle Ordinaire and adapted for Red Bull by Jeffrey Hatcher, The Imaginary Invalid is a brilliant satire of doctors, lawyers, and would-be patients who take self-care to staggering levels of pathological solipsism. A comic whirlwind of pills, lovers, therapies, disguises, vaccinations, impersonations, masks, mindfulness and miracle cures.
Worth Seeing · 20 critics
CriticScore by Broadway Scorecard · no EyeOnBroadway review yet
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- Weekly gross
- $363,031
- Avg ticket
- $69
- Seats sold
- 5,272
- Performances
- 8
- Change vs prior week
- +7.8pp capacity
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