The Off-Broadway Theatre Review: The Imaginary Invalid at Red Bull Theater
By Acton
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and in an age when a minor illness can cost you an arm and a leg, why not marry off your daughter to a doltish doctor, just for the perks? In a new adaptation (by Jeffrey Hatcher, from Mirabelle Ordinaire’s translation) of Molière’s final farce, some of the most knowing laughter comes not at the expense of the title character, but in sympathy with his exasperation at the health care system (such as it is, in 1674).
The new production of The Imaginary Invalid (director Jeffrey Hatcher) is a snappy, candy-colored bonbon that dazzles immediately with its electric blue and neon pink set (set designer Beowulf Boritt), colors dialed up for maximum fun. The plot zips along: Argan (Mark Linn-Baker) is a rich old hypochondriac who spends most of his time up his own ass; his daily enemas and invigorating butt massages are his raison d’être, along with annoying his maid Toinette (Sarah Stiles), who tends to his toilette. His heavenly daughter Angelique (Emilie Kouatchou) is in love with a big, dumb hunk (John Yi), but Argan would much rather she marry the man-child spawn of his doctor, who is also studying to be a doctor (Arnie Burton and Russell Daniels as father and son). It’s a two-for-one deal. Meanwhile, Argan’s conniving new wife Béline (Emily Swallow) and her loverboy lawyer De Bonnefoi (Manoel Felciano) are taking a wrecking ball to the house in search of a hidden cache of cash.
The Imaginary Invalid was first performed 350 years ago, but you’d never know it from this sprightly, lightning-fast staging. Even the musical interludes of this comédie-ballet are zhuzhed up, borrowing the tunes of French vanilla Broadway hits. The cast is universally excellent, set up for comic success by costumes that are funny all on their own (costume designer Tilly Grimes and Hair & Wig designer Sun Ju Kim). Arnie Burton is hilarious in two roles that demand increasingly dizzying quick changes as the show goes on. Russell Daniels is fearless as the profoundly brainless med school graduate Thomas Diafoirus, whose look seems inspired by Buster Brown and Baby Huey. Emily Swallow is a riot as a literal home wrecker, desperately keeping up a charming facade in front of her new family as she plots to betray them all. Sarah Stiles infuses in her wisenheimer Toinette the anarchic spirit of Groucho Marx’s horse doctor in “A Day at the Races”, and his face provides the last laugh in a tossed-off joke that ends a very funny show.
