A hypochondriac schemes to marry his headstrong daughter off to a doctor to save on his mounting medical bills, sparking chaos as his family plots against him.

Mixed feelings on this one. Roundabout’s Broadway season kicks off with this new Molière adaptation by and starring Bill Irwin. He’s got a pretty worthy conceit in his head here: “Imaginary Invalid,” as originally written, has a key play-within-a-play sequence which Irwin extends to encompass the entire play. Brandon J. Dirden’s direction telegraphs this early with a second, inner proscenium and a surreal, foreshortened set. Irwin writes in a number of “we are actors” fourth-wall breaks. Everyone (except the contrastingly deadpan Rachel Bloom) is performing in this exaggerated comic style, with wide gesticulations, ree-hee-heally stretched syllables, and overdone facial expressions. That that style’s a deliberate artistic choice - one that’s consistent with the ethos of the text, even - doesn’t make it fun to sit through. It gets grating at points, especially when there are fewer, more concentrated doses of the outsized personalities on the stage. Notably, we kick off with a monologue by Irwin’s titular invalid, and it’s such a sour first impression that I’m not sure the play ever recovers.