As soon as Bill Irwin’s reimagined version of The Imaginary Invalid begins, we realize this will be a different take on Moliere’s classic play.The comedy begins in the commedia dell’arte style with actors garbed in dark robes while wearing face masks. Irwin, an actor, a playwright, and a mime, tackles Moliere’s 1673 masterpiece, cutting the running time and modernizing it slightly while still maintaining its barbs and humor.

Irwin plays Argan, the hypochondriac in the title role. He sits centerstage, like a kinglike in a fancy barcalounger as the many avaricious members of his household circle around him. Irwin, the consummate mime and actor, is onstage for most of the 90 minute production, except when he rushes off to use the bathroom and, in a modern touch, the audience hears the toilet flushing. Argan has frequent enemas, so the toilet joke continues throughout the play.

Rather than resent the doctors who are constantly treating him, Argan seems to enjoy their attention. It’s their bills he resents and so, to save that money, he decides to marry off his daughter Angelique (Ava Lalezazadeh) to a doctor. If she won't marry the doctor’s nephew, then Argan will send her to the convent as his greedy second wife Beline (Crystal Dickinson) suggests. Beline can’t wait for him to die and claim her inheritance, so she schemes with the notary (her lover) to have him sign his money and property to her. The notary is one of the three roles played by Hiram Delgado, who later plays the nephew, as well as specialist sent to give Argan his enemas.

As Argan’s outspoken servant,Toinette (Rachel Bloom, delightful in her Broadway debut) is impudent and plainspeaking. No docile servant, she involves herself in the family affairs, makes her feelings known and tries to get Argan into letting his daughter marry the man she wants. We suspend belief especially when Toinette ‘disguises’ herself as a visiting doctor and Argan doesn’t recognize her.

The characters, all except for Argan’s brother (played straight by Dylan Baker) are large cartoonish characters. The doctors are ridiculous but that was Moliere’s goal in writing the play. He wanted to parody doctors who seemed more concerned with billing patients for unnecessary tests and following protocols than caring for patients.

A top-rate clown himself, Irwin allows the other actors to be clowns as well. Brooks Ashmanskas is wonderfully pompous in dual roles as both Dr. Purgon and Dr. Diafoirus. The funny over-the-top characters are fun and absurd. Director Brandon J. Dirden, last seen in his noteworthy performance as Pozzo in Waiting for Godot, gets much from his capable cast by getting them to ham it up. Somehow the sillier the better, and it works.

The costumes are gorgeous, colorful and lush and one of the best aspects of the production (kudos to Karen Perry.) Beowulf Boritt’s set design displays Argan’s affluence.

An Imaginary Invalid has broad humor, wordplay, sumptuous costumes and recognizable villains and a happy ending. We also have a foolish main character, and despite his hypochondria, we like him and maybe even identify with him a little. Argan’s opening scene shows him going through his bills and payments for his various treatments. As our own health care costs continue to rise, who can’t identify with that?