Bedside Manner, Rachel Bloom Makes Her Broadway Debut on 42nd Street

Rachel Bloom, the creator and star of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, makes her official Broadway debut tonight, October 22, when Roundabout Theatre Company opens The Imaginary Invalid at the Todd Haimes Theatre on West 42nd Street.

She plays Toinette, the maid. Bill Irwin plays the man she works for, a patient with nothing wrong with him.

The Todd Haimes sits at 227 West 42nd Street, a few doors west of the Times Square crush. Previews began September 25. Tonight is the official opening, and the run is short. Roundabout lists it as a limited engagement that ends Sunday, November 22.

Who Is Rachel Bloom?

Bloom is a Golden Globe winner, as New York Theatre Guide notes, best known for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, the musical comedy series she created and starred in. Playbill also lists Death, Let Me Do My Show among her credits.

Molière gives her a sharp job. Toinette does not panic. She watches everyone else panic, and then she fixes things.

Toinette does not panic. She watches everyone else panic, and then she fixes things.

In the Molière original, the maid is the one person in the house who sees through the doctors, the stepmother and the master himself. Reviews, expected after tonight's opening, will say how Irwin's version and Bloom's timing shape her. Until then, only preview audiences know.

What Is The Imaginary Invalid About?

It is a 17th-century comedy by Molière about a man who loves being sick. Argan, the "perpetual patient" in Roundabout's own description, schemes to marry his daughter to a doctor to save on medical bills. She has another life in mind.

Roundabout's pitch for the evening is that the production will prove "real life is what happens while you and your family are making other plans."

Irwin, a Tony winner for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, adapted the play from a translation by Doug Skinner and plays Argan himself. Our earlier look at Irwin's adaptation covers how he came to it and why he has been thinking about this play for most of his life.

Who Else Is in the House?

The company leans comic. Brooks Ashmanskas, a Tony nominee from Smash and The Prom, plays both doctors, Diafoirus and Purgon. Dylan Baker plays Argan's brother Beralde. Crystal A. Dickinson plays Argan's wife, Beline. Ava Lalezarzadeh plays the daughter Angelique.

Bloom is not the only newcomer. Daniel Croix Henderson, who plays Cleante, the young man Angelique actually loves, is also making his Broadway debut, according to New York Theatre Guide. Hiram Delgado plays three roles, Bonnefoy, Thomas and Fleurant.

Brandon J. Dirden, a Tony nominee, directs. It is his Broadway directing debut. Beowulf Boritt designed the set, Karen Perry the costumes, Allen Lee Hughes the lighting and John Gromada the sound and original music. Lorenzo Pisoni handles movement, which matters in a farce where doctors, daughters and a maid all cross the same room at speed.

The production opens Roundabout's 2026-27 season, and it lands a night after Billy Crystal's 860 opened at the Imperial. Our roundup of the reviews of 860 has that verdict.

What to Know Before You Go

The Imaginary Invalid runs 90 minutes with no intermission at the Todd Haimes Theatre, 227 West 42nd Street, through November 22. New York Theatre Guide recommends it for ages 8 and up. Roundabout sells tickets on its own site, where prices vary by date.

If you are going for Bloom, check the calendar. Roundabout notes that on November 3 and 10, her understudy Madeline Seidman plays Toinette.

The production also uses theatrical haze, per Roundabout.

The patient on 42nd Street refuses to get better. The maid, tonight, gets her first Broadway bow.