Bill Irwin's having a busy year. After appearing in Christopher Nolan's blockbuster film The Odyssey, he's turning to a different classic story as The Imaginary Invalid's adapter and star.

Who he plays: I play Argan, the head of the household — or so he thinks.

Comic inspirations: Buster Keaton, Lucille Ball are great demigods to me.

Message to audiences: It is a very funny play about the human body, and it's full of human-body comedy. A verbal joke makes you go, "Hehe." A physical joke is a different — you're laughing from a different center. I hope Broadway audiences will come and have 95 minutes in the theatre which makes them want to come back again.

Be a hypochondriac or deal with one? This is like chicken and egg. I do not know an answer because I've looked at it from both sides of this equation. I am a hypochondriac. If you name a disease, I know I've probably had some symptoms, but I've taken care of people, too.

Character diagnosis: Shallow breathing. Take a deep breath, man!

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend creator and star Rachel Bloom has wanted to be on Broadway since she was 5, and that dream is finally coming true mere months before a landmark birthday: "I get to be on Broadway before I turn 40!"

Who she plays: I play Toinette. She is the maid of this bougie household. She's smarter than everyone else and solves everything because they're all insane.

Comic inspirations: [My co-stars] — the most down-to-earth group of people you could ever ask for.

Message to audiences: You'd be surprised how similar people's worries were over 350 years ago. We're making it fun.

It doesn't take place, like, in an influencer office; it takes place in the 1600s. But it's going to be fun and funny in a way that will make you genuinely laugh.

Be a hypochondriac or deal with one? It's more exhausting to deal with them because when you're a hypochondriac — and I have a little bit of hypochondriac in myself — at least your mind is used to it and there's a little bit of joy to giving your anxious mind something to think about. Being around one can be rough.

Character diagnosis: Future Syndrome. It's as if she's from the future and can see the pieces ahead of everyone else.

The Imaginary Invalid is a family affair for Crystal Dickinson, whose husband of 20 years, Brandon J. Dirden, is the director. Her real-life marriage is luckily healthier than her character's marriage to Irwin's.

Who she plays: I'm playing Béline in The Imaginary Invalid. To describe my character briefly, I'm just going to say: gold digger.

Comic inspirations: Carol Burnett. I ask my son regularly if he thinks I'm funnier than she is. He never says yes, but I'm always hopeful.

Message to audiences: Don't be put off that it's a 17th-century play because Bill has brought a modernity to it, even in the casting. My husband Brandon [...] has said it's a handshake with history.

It is very accessible and really fun. And 90 minutes. You come in, there's no intermission, you have a blast, and you go home and you get the early train. Everybody wins.

Be a hypochondriac or deal with one? Deal with a hypochondriac. Hypochondriacs don't know they're hypochondriacs. They're living their best life, or not. But when you've got to tell people, "Are you really sick?", that seems like more work.

Character diagnosis: Gotta-have-it-itis

Brooks Ashmanskas is a comedic favorite on Broadway, having earned Tony Award nominations for his hilarious turns in The Prom, Smash, and Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me. Now, he gets to show off those chops in not one, but two roles.

Who he plays: I play two different doctors in The Imaginary Invalid. The first is Dr. Diafoirus; he's a very deferential character, sort of corrupt. He's willing to do anything for this hypochondriac played by Bill Irwin, to keep giving him the medicines he wants even if nothing's wrong.

Later, I play the top-tier doctor Purgon. Let's just say he has a bone to pick with Bill Irwin's character.

Comic inspirations: Martin Short. I've known him a long time, but I still marvel at his ability to be so free and so wrong, it's right. And Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick...

Message to audiences: It's really joyful [...] but it's sadly relevant about the healthcare industry and things like that. Who is it really serving? Who should it be serving? They send up the people who play these healthcare people in such a way as to make them look pretty foolish and show them to be the poo-poos they are, but it's done with great care and love.

Be a hypochondriac or deal with one? It's probably more exhausting to deal with the hypochondriac. To be one, sometimes you can live in a fantasy world about it. You're actually in great shape.

Character diagnosis: Self-absorption

Hiram Delgado is doing triple duty with three supporting roles in The Imaginary Invalid. He grew up seeing and doing a lot of "clownish" theatre in his native Puerto Rico, making this play a natural fit.

Who he plays: I'm playing Bonnefoy, who is a "lawyer." Maybe he's a con artist; I'll let you decide. I'm playing Thomas, the son of the doctor that Argan is trying to marry to his daughter, which she doesn't love. And then I'm playing Fleurant, this nurse that comes in and has a patch and makes it worse for everybody.

Comic inspirations: Bill Irwin, if I may say, he's the master of all this stuff. I had a teacher at NYU called Kevin Isola, who was also a clown, who spoke to me a lot when I was back in school. And honestly, the people from my undergrad. [At] the University of Puerto Rico, we did a lot of commedia dell'arte, we did a lot of clown work. My colleagues during that time, who are also some of my friends here in New York [...] were my comedic inspirations.

Message to audiences: If you like to laugh, you'll love Imaginary Invalid.

Be a hypochondriac or deal with one? It would be hard to be on either end of that.

Character diagnosis: Bonnefoy definitely has some self-delusion of grandiosity. Thomas is also a little delusional in his thinking; I mean, he's a doctor that doesn't believe in medicine. And Fleurant, he's just super, super nervous.

Dylan Baker, a three-time Emmy nominee for The Good Wife and a Tony nominee for La Bête, returns to Broadway as Beralde, Argan's levelheaded brother determined to make Argan see his own foolishness. You'll have to learn more about the character by seeing Baker on stage — he was unable to participate in this interview as, somewhat ironically, he was under the weather at the time.

Bill Irwin isn't the only clown in the cast: Ava Lalezarzadeh, who made her Broadway debut in Roundabout's English last year, dabbles in clown herself. She doesn't get to use it much here; her character, Angelique, is a pure-young-lover archetype called an innamorata. But there is a prologue, she teased, where she can step out of character and get silly.

Who she plays: The central conflict revolves around this father named Argan, who's a hypochondriac who wants to marry his daughter, Angelique, played by me, to a doctor so he can have permanent healthcare. I am in love with another man named Cléante.

Comic inspirations: Bill, of course. Bill is a legend of clown, so it's wonderful to be working alongside him. I also love Lucille Ball and the slapstick she does.

But while this is a satire play, the innamorata love characters Daniel and I play, we bring sincerity and groundedness. As much as I love clown, I really have to resist the temptation.

Message to audiences: It's a satire, it's funny, but [...] it's still also a family story rooted in real conflict. The thing about commedia dell'arte, the genre Molière was writing in, is that it's both comedy and drama. So, there's really something for everybody.

Be a hypochondriac or deal with one? Deal with one. There's something indulgent and delicious in being sick.

Character diagnosis: Lovesick. Very, very lovesick.

Daniel Croix Henderson, making his Broadway debut, had a unique recommendation for who should see this show: "If you like Googling your own health symptoms and seeing if anything's wrong with you, you will love The Imaginary Invalid."

Who he plays: Cléante is a lover and a fighter. He busts into this family dynamic where there's a hypochondriac at the head of the household causing chaos for everyone.

Comic inspirations: Bill Irwin is so fantastic as a physical comedian, and it's been so incredible to be in the room with him.

Message to audiences: I really understand being wary of seeing a really old play, but this one's old for a reason. And this adaptation that Bill has created is so fast-paced. It feels very contemporary, and it really speaks to us right now. I mean, we are in the room cackling and dying of laughter.

Be a hypochondriac or deal with one? It's more exhausting to be a hypochondriac than to deal with a hypochondriac. If you're dealing with one, you can always walk away.

Character diagnosis: Passionitis, which means he's just a little bit too passionate. He goes a little too hard. I mean, he breaks into a house to just profess his love — no spoilers, but that does happen.

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