Laughter Is the Best Medicine! Bill Irwin, Rachel Bloom & More on Broadway’s The Imaginary Invalid

Molière is getting the Broadway treatment. Tony winner Bill Irwin’s new adaptation of The Imaginary Invalid brings the 17th-century comedy about hypochondria, family and the high price of healthcare to Roundabout Theatre Company, with Irwin starring as the perpetually ailing Argan and Tony nominee Brandon J. Dirden making his Broadway directorial debut. Broadway.com caught up with the cast and creatives to find out how they’re putting a fresh spin on the 350-year-old comedy.

For Irwin, this has been a long time coming. The actor first performed the Molière comedy in high school, and it stuck with him for six decades. At its center is Argan, a hypochondriac so consumed by illness that he plans to marry his daughter Angélique to a doctor to secure lifelong medical care. “It's a satiric skewer of the medical industrial complex, both of 1673 and of our time today,” says Irwin. One of Molière’s centuries-old questions particularly resonates with him: "Can one afford to be sick?" Beneath all the farce, Irwin sees a story about mortality, family and what people are willing to sacrifice when fear takes over.

Dirden sees the same timelessness in Molière’s examination of obsession, with his production delivering that message through theatrical mayhem. Making his Broadway directing debut at the same theater where he made his Broadway acting debut has reinforced a guiding principle. “Everybody deserves a good story,” he says. “Whether you're in a community theater in Omaha, Nebraska or whether you're on Broadway here, Roundabout Theater Company, those audience members deserve your best.”

Getting the best from this company means encouraging them to go for broke. Hiram Delgado, who plays Bonnefoy, Thomas and Fleurant, says Dirden established that immediately. “Brandon the first day told us, ‘The stuff that you think is too big as an actor, that's the stuff that I want you to bring in,’” he says. “That immediately gives you a permission of play that is so essential for this type of show and for this type of cast. He's been extremely generous and masterful at creating this space where we feel comfortable to bring stuff in.”

That invitation suits a comedy rooted in commedia dell’arte, where heightened characters, physical comedy and a close relationship with the audience come with the territory. Broadway newcomer Daniel Croix Henderson, playing Cléante, is aware of that history. “It's a 400-year tradition of work,” he says. “What I feel really grateful about with our production is that we're really honoring the legacy of how this work has been performed, but also finding our own way into it.”

Rachel Bloom makes her Broadway debut as Toinette, the clever servant to Irwin’s Argan. The Crazy Ex-Girlfriend creator and Golden Globe winner sees Molière’s comedies as ancestors of the modern sitcom, but has a simpler test for the material. “Finding actual laugh-out-loud moments from a show over 350 years old is really cool and exciting to me,” she says. And, you know what they say. Laughter is the best medicine.

Hear more from cast members Brooks Ashmanskas, Crystal A. Dickinson and Ava Lalezarzadeh in the video below!

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