"For most of 2025, we were either watching one of the playwright's comedies or bracing for one. In June, we had almost simultaneous productions: Taylor Mac's "Prosperous Fools" (an update of "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme") and Jeffrey Hatcher's fizzy adaptation of "Le Malade Imaginaire." And, this fall, one version of the comedy "Tartuffe" (at the House of the Redeemer) had barely closed before New York Theatre Workshop premièred its own."
"If it's the year of Molière, then it must also be the year of the liar, the hypocrite, the poseur, the clown. In many of his comedies, as in "Tartuffe," a man at the head of a family exaggerates some seeming virtue (respect for doctors, piety) to a fanatical degree, threatening the happiness and the fortunes of everyone who depends on him."
Molière became the central theatrical presence in New York in 2025 through numerous revivals and new translations. Multiple high-profile productions appeared, including Taylor Mac's Prosperous Fools, Jeffrey Hatcher's Le Malade Imaginaire adaptation, and competing stagings of Tartuffe. New York Theatre Workshop mounted a lush, intermittently inert Tartuffe adapted by Lucas Hnath and directed by Sarah Benson, starring Matthew Broderick and David Cross. Molière's comedies repeatedly feature self-righteous paterfamilias who inflate virtues and thereby imperil their families by falling prey to quacks and false counselors. Writing under Louis XIV's patronage, Molière mocked wealthy gullibility without calling for their removal from power.
Read at The New Yorker
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