In keeping with its mission of bringing rarely seen classic plays to life for a present-day audience, Red Bull Theater’s current Off-Broadway offering at New World Stages is a limited engagement of Jeffrey Hatcher’s new adaptation of Molière’s final play, The Imaginary Invalid, freshly translated by Mirabelle Ordinaire. First performed in Paris in 1673, and written to entertain Louis XIV, the original three-act comedy-ballet (combining satire with song and dance) has been reworked and streamlined to a rapid-fire 80 minutes of non-stop hilarity, while presenting a farcical look at the medical profession and a character study of the titular hypochondriac, with razor-sharp socio-political commentary on greed, deception, and gullibility that still draws laughs and resonates now, in the company’s signature combination of historical tradition with a post-modern sensibility.
Directed by Red Bull’s Founding Artistic Director Jesse Berger, a fully committed and irresistibly zany cast of eight delivers the whirlwind of antics and scheming with spot-on comic timing, madcap physical comedy, and riotous embodiments of the over-the-top characters, embracing their inordinate self-obsession and self-interest, guises and lies, potty humor and sexual innuendo with abandon, and never missing a beat in the fast-paced door-slammer chase scene or the witty revised lyrics to such famous later-day tunes as “La Marseilles” (created in 1792 and adopted as the national anthem of France in 1795) and the 20th-century “La Vie en Rose” (written by Édith Piaf in 1945 and released in 1947), “I Dreamed a Dream” (from the 1980 musical Les Misérables), and “Hooray for Captain Spaulding” (from the Marx Brothers’ 1928 Broadway musical Animal Crackers and the 1930 film version, which would become Groucho’s signature song). It all makes for one wild and thoroughly entertaining ride through the centuries and the exploration of human behavior that persists and continues to warrant skewering.
Leading the top-notch performances is Mark Linn-Baker as Argan, the eponymous hypochondriac whose imagined illnesses, including his buttocks repeatedly going numb, lead him to arrange the marriage of his daughter, in love with another man, to a doltish nepo-doctor – the son and nephew of two of his physicians, who exploit his delusional condition and credulity – so he can be assured of free healthcare for life (his observation about paying for insurance is both acerbically funny and all-too accurate). But his new second wife wants her unwilling stepdaughter to be sent off to a convent to become a nun, and enlists the services of her own secret lover, a lawyer, so she, as Argan’s gold-digging soon-to-be widow, can inherit his fortune. But his shrewd, feisty, and often disobedient maidservant Toinette, played to perfection by Sarah Stiles, sees the con artists for what they are, exposes them through some clever deceptions (at one point donning Groucho Marx glasses), and ultimately saves Argan and his loving daughter from their avaricious plotting. Sound ridiculous? It is, in the most rollicking, roisterous, and incisive way.
Along with the sidesplitting Linn-Baker and Stiles is an across-the-board stellar company of comical character-defining masters. Emilie Kouatchou as Argan’s daughter Angélique rebels against the wishes of her father and stepmother, encouraged by Toinette to remain committed to her love for the handsome and kindhearted but not very bright Cléante. Portrayed by John Yi with an understated tone of je ne sais pas, he poses as her music teacher to get into her home and bedroom, with absolutely no knowledge of music or teaching (as heard in his laughable ignorance of the term “a cappella”). Emily Swallow as Argan’s lavishly dressed wife Béline, who only married him for his money, cuts through their walls to find where he’s hidden it, leaving herself covered in dust and her hair disheveled, aided by Manoel Felciano as her less-than-ethical lawyer and paramour De Bonnefoi.
Rounding out the terrific cast are Arnie Burton taking on the triple roles of Dr. Purgon, physician to Argan, who exploits his hypochondria for financial gain, Dr. Fleurant, who appears in an absurd futuristic outfit with a huge fog-emitting enema device and speaking with an accent reminiscent of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Dr. Diafoirus, another physician and father of Thomas, who scripted his son (and mouths the words) on what to say upon meeting Argan and his intended bride Angélique. The nimble actor makes quick changes from one character to the next and offers the most uproarious of the show’s metatheatrical breaks through the fourth wall (calling out his co-star Mark for expecting him to appear as Argan’s multiple doctors simultaneously). And Russell Daniels is the jejune Thomas Diafoirus, his grown but childish son and the nephew of Dr. Purgon, betrothed to Angélique by their fathers and completely clueless about life, though, through his familial connections, also about to become a doctor in a matter of weeks – so that’s good enough for Argan.
The outstanding adaptation and performances are supported by an artistic design that likewise brilliantly merges then and now. Beowulf Boritt’s set captures the elaborate French Baroque stylings of the Louis XIV era, enhanced by appropriately colorful lighting by Mextly Couzin and props by Lauren Page Russell that range from the array of Argan’s antique medicine bottles to Fleurant’s sci-fi enema. Costumes by Tilly Grimes, with hair and wigs by Sun Ju Kim, evoke the period, classes, and stations of the characters, with a few sly nods to the present (seen in Toinette’s more current wide-leg pants), as do their voice and speech patterns, coached by Deborah Hecht, with no assumed French accents, just the usual American (and a little bit of Schwarzenegger). Sound by Nina Field and Greg Pliska (who also serves as music director and composer) provides the music of the clavichord, alternately faux-played on stage by Angélique and Cléante, and the action, movement, and intimacy direction by Rick Sordelet and choreography by Tracy Bersley – including that lively door-slammer sequence – are well-suited to the themes, characters, and moods, and performed flawlessly by the supremely talented cast.
If you believe, as advertised, that “laughter is the best medicine,” don’t miss this laugh-out-loud production of The Imaginary Invalid to get your hefty, healthy dose; it’s sure to provide some effective relief from the malaise of Molière’s times and ours.
Running Time: Approximately 80 minutes, without intermission.
The Imaginary Invalid plays through Sunday, June 29, 2025, at Red Bull Theater, performing at New World Stages, 340 W 50th Street, NYC. For tickets (priced at $111-140, including fees), go online, or find discount tickets at TodayTix.