Bill Irwin Serves Up a Comic Master Class in ‘The Imaginary Invalid’

Bill Irwin is that rare artist who not only wears many hats — literally, at times — but also transcends cultural demographics. A veteran actor, writer, director, choreographer, and clown, he’s as beloved by the Samuel Beckett fans he has entertained, in productions ranging from starry Broadway outings to original solo pieces, as he is by parents of children who have grown up watching him play Mr. Noodle, Elmo’s loose-limbed companion on “Sesame Street.” (That’s not to suggest those categories are mutually exclusive; I belong to both.)On stage, Mr. Irwin’s repertoire has included a wide range of other celebrated playwrights, among them Molière. A few decades ago, he co-adapted and starred in “Scapin,” an adaptation of “Les Fourberies de Scapin” that was produced off-Broadway by Roundabout Theatre Company. Now that company’s Broadway house, the Todd Haimes Theatre, is presenting Mr. Irwin’s new adaptation of “The Imaginary Invalid,” featuring him in the title role of Argan, a part he initially played back in high school.Mr. Irwin used a translation by Doug Skinner, and has enlisted first-time Broadway director Brandon J. Dirden, a celebrated actor whose featured performance was one of the few bright spots in last season’s revival of “Waiting for Godot.” Mr. Dirden has in turn surrounded his star with a collection of established and rising players, all facile, and the resulting production of “Invalid” is as much fun to watch as it surely was to rehearse. With assists from costume designer Karen Perry and movement director Lorenzo Pisoni, Messrs. Irwin and Dirden have made the physically driven prologue an elegant showcase for Mr. Irwin’s enduring agility and grace in that arena. From there we arrive at Argan’s estate, lushly represented in Beowulf Boritt’s set, where our hypochondriacal host launches into a soliloquy introducing the play’s scatological humor.Argan is then joined by a succession of wry and sometimes buffoonish characters, beginning with the cleverest, Toinette, Argan’s long-suffering maid; she is played here by Rachel Bloom, best known for co-creating and starring in the CW series “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” in a smart, endearing Broadway debut.In contrast, I found Crystal A. Dickinson’s take on Beline, Argan’s phony, scheming wife, a bit overwrought, even given the character and milieu. But the other actors are superb — among them the redoubtable Dylan Baker, relatively dry as Argan’s more reasonable brother, Beralde, and Brooks Ashmanskas, predictably droll playing a pair of pretentious doctors. (Molière’s intent was to send up the medical profession in his time as much as fools like Argan.)Hiram Delgado is even funnier juggling three parts: a sly notary who becomes Beline’s accomplice; a well-connected doofus seeking the hand of Argan’s daughter, Angelique — sweetly played by Ava Lalezarzadeh, with a charming Daniel Croix Henderson cast as her worthier beau — and, most memorably, a smug apothecary who is humiliated in the production’s most graphic gag.As winning as these performances are, you’ll have a hard time tearing your eyes away from Mr. Irwin; even when he’s silently observing or reacting to others, the fluidity and wit of his movements and facial expressions provide a master class in comedy that only someone with his training and intuition could deliver. As a writer, Mr. Irwin has updated the ending of “The Imaginary Invalid” with similar panache, addressing the audience with nods to A.I. and the theater’s subscribers.He concludes, in character but also speaking for himself, with a “healing suggestion”: to “follow always the dancing in your heart.” Clearly, and luckily for us, that approach continues to serve him well.

Bill Irwin Serves Up a Comic Master Class in ‘The Imaginary Invalid’

Bill Irwin Serves Up a Comic Master Class in ‘The Imaginary Invalid’

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