‘The Imaginary Invalid’ Review: Molière’s Unfunny Broadway Revival Makes You Scream “Holy Blue!”

Perhaps the audience at the Todd Haimes Theater imagined he was suffering from laryngitis. Because the laughter certainly did not flow freely during the recent performance of Molière’s “Imagine Malade” which I attended.

For about the first hour of the French classic, there were virtually no polite, upper-middle-class thank-you laughs. You know the noise. Voluntary exhalations of air that say: “Yes, I am I knew it was a joke.

The silence was awkward. The Haimes is a large, cold room. And in director Brandon J. Dirden’s failed Roundabout Theater Company revival, which opened Thursday night, the actors are working very, very hard to make up for it. So hard it’s like there’s a maternity nurse behind the scenes yelling, “Push! Push!”

And push, they do.

In what comes as a disappointing surprise, one of the most disappointing performers of the lot is Bill Irwin as Argan, the titular hypochondriac who spends all his money on expensive procedures and appointments that quack doctors have convinced him he urgently needs.

Irwin has a strong connection to the play. He adapted the version used in this cover with great care and affection – and, yes, with a machete. He cut it down to 90 minutes (not as short as you’d think!), but kept the action set squarely in 17th century France rather than telling the story in the villages of Florida or some other contemporary enclave of retirees. Irwin is a famous clowning expert and probably knows this text in the marrow of his bones.

Well, you wouldn’t know it because of his scattered Argan, who groans and reclines for most of the play in a chair at center stage. The actor rambles and swallows his words as often as he swallows pills and his comedic timing is far from good.

The first few minutes, after a somewhat random introduction to company dancing to rhythmic lute music, Argan reads his medical bills. He worships “the diet!” » and enthusiastically counts his 18 enemas. The word enema alone should be funny, but it attracts crickets.

The fact that Irwin Bolt leaves no room for laughter establishes the usual silence of the audience for the next 60 minutes. He’s not shy – in fact he’s too shy – but he’s calm and quick.

The man with a cloudy bladder frequently rushes to the bathroom even though the sound of the toilet is too artificial. It makes cicadas.

Everyone, yeah, is a lot louder. “Please calm down!” » louder. All these huge characters want something from the stupid old dude and are working like assholes to get it. There’s potential for hilarity in this as written, but almost never as relentless here.

Performed on Beowulf Boritt’s pre-crayon coloring book set, “Invalid” is filled with simple comedic set-pieces. Argan’s daughter, Angélique (Ava Lalezarzadeh), dreams of marrying a hottie she just met, named Cleante (Daniel Croix Henderson), instead of the stuffy doctor’s son Argan promised her in order to get pro bono medical treatment.

His serpentine second wife, Beline (Crystal A. Dickinson), colludes to take all his money. And the pompous Dr. Diafoirus (Brooks Ashmanskas) has to keep sending him bills for all those unnecessary enemas.

In what turns into a silly and obnoxious voice contest, most of the cast are unbearably corny and therefore irritable.

Naturally, Ashmanskas bulldozes in and says his usual “here I am!” » trick he does in everything.

Lalezarzadeh and Henderson are extremely irritating during a scene in which Cleante pretends to be Angélique’s music teacher while they secretly communicate through an improvised opera. This whole awkward sequence is terribly done by Dirden. The singing is risky and the bit deflates quickly. Disguises and trickery should delight the audience, not make them stand up to their ears.

So much the better for Hiram Delgado who generated real laughter in the role of Thomas, the son of Diafoirus promised to Angélique. He gives the socially inept role a fun “Revenge of the Nerds” twist.

But the best actor in the room is the one who does the least. That’s Rachel Bloom as Toinette, Argan’s overworked and abused servant. Simple and with crystal clear diction, the “My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” star is witty and cutting as she drone on annoyed about all the nonsense going on in this house of loons.

I can’t blame him.