Bill Irwin Prescribes a Fresh Dose of Molière in Broadway’s The Imaginary Invalid

Take it from Tony winner Bill Irwin: Molière was one of the greats. It's no easy feat to make a revival feel fresh, let alone a 350-year-old French text like The Imaginary Invalid. But if you ask Irwin, who adapted and stars in Broadway's new spin on the classic comedy, the jokes hold up. "You don't really have to reach," Irwin says. "I mean, sometimes you do, but you don't have to reach far, because Molière's got this one, and that sets up this one."

Molière's play centers on Argan, a hypochondriac who schemes to marry off his daughter Angélique to a doctor, ensuring himself access to free healthcare for life. There's just one problem: Angélique is already in love with someone else. Antics ensue. "Listen carefully," Irwin advises audiences. "It's like humanity flayed open."

The play has stuck with Irwin for nearly six decades, and as he's aged, its themes have become less abstract. Older and wiser, he now has the life experience to appreciate the material on a deeper level. "I've been thinking about this play for right around 60 years, because I did this role in high school," Irwin explains. While many scholars favor The Miser, Irwin prefers Molière's final work. "It's like a fever dream. It is a joy. It's also kind of a daunting responsibility to do well by this master playwright."

Molière was sick while writing the play, and the irony doesn't stop there. Like Irwin, he led the company as Argan—but only for four performances. Molière collapsed on stage and died later that evening. Knowing that the playwright was grappling with his own mortality adds another layer to the story. "It's a man who is looking at so many different things: money, sex, loyalty and death," Irwin says. Another "great thread throughout the drama" is the characters' relationships. "These people love each other so much they don't have words for it, so they use profanity."

While Molière created the satirical blueprint, Irwin sees that tradition in the DNA of playwright Edward Albee, comedian Lucille Ball and—hopefully—his own cast. Borrowing a phrase from actor Brandon J. Dirden, who makes his Broadway directorial debut with the production, Irwin calls the adaptation "a handshake with history."

"I hope audiences are going to be surprised by how 2026 the play is and what a window on our forebears it is," Irwin emphasizes. "He's got these characters kind of pinned to the wall like a butterfly collection. At the same time, they're absolutely alive. So the room is full of insects flying."

Molière may have served as creator, director and star, but Irwin notes that he did not give himself all of the laughs. "He made himself in many ways the straight man," Irwin points out. In Argan, "he wrote a character that sets up" the punchlines for other members of the company, including Argan's brother Béralde (played by Dylan Baker) and the doctors Diafoirus and Purgon (portrayed by Brooks Ashmanskas). "You can feel how this guy 350 years ago with his quill pen was going, 'And then I say this so that he can say this.'"

That dynamic is especially effective with Rachel Bloom's Toinette, according to Irwin. "She comes in as the servant who knows everything and runs the show and is smarter in a certain way than everybody else on stage." Irwin praises Bloom's performance, calling her "a walking character comedy encyclopedia." Daniel Croix Henderson and Ava Lalezarzadeh, who play the young lovers Angélique and Cléante, are also "very funny, and heavenly voices for what Molière needs for just a moment," he promises.

"We're like a quick pickup company, elaborately negotiated, but you just get in the room and throw the ball around together," Irwin says of the full ensemble, which is rounded out by Crystal A. Dickinson as Beline and Hiram Delgado in the three "juicy roles" of Bonnefoy, Thomas and Fleurant. "All we have to do is become the New York Knicks. And we actually have a fighting chance, because each actor is such a master."

The Imaginary Invalid is now in previews, opening October 22 at the Todd Haimes Theatre. Get tickets!