MORAL ROT MASQUERADING AS VIRTUE

Broderick underplays the zealot Tartuffe
in Lucas Hnath’s contemporary take,
but the cast keeps the comedy crackling

The art of looking virtuous while being utterly fake is a talent as old as theater itself, and Molière’s Tartuffe remains the most iconic theatrical example. Having seen André De Shields’s sly, invigorating version at the House of the Redeemer in October, I arrived at New York Theatre Workshop eager for Lucas Hnath’s new adaptation, directed by Sarah Benson with choreography by Raja Feather Kelly. I left amused, engaged, and faintly unsatisfied.

Matthew Broderick

Hnath’s comic verse is undeniably sharp. It moves fast, lands cleanly, and feels thoroughly contemporary while honoring Molière’s original rhythms. The jokes snap. The ensemble plays with exhilarating confidence. This Tartuffe knows how to make an audience laugh, and often does.

Bianca Del Rio

And yet, something feels flat; the minimalist setting by the collective known as dots, and a played-down Tartuffe take away some of what makes Molière sparkle. Tartuffe, the scheming monk who wants to steal everything rich Orgon owns, should command the room, radiate religious power, and make others agree before they have even noticed the trap. But Matthew Broderick, who plays the role, comes across only as a crafty rat — the sense of religious authority never quite materializes. That said, Broderick plays the rat part beautifully, as a low, insinuating presence that thrives on staying underestimated until the finale, but without that initial power, the satire loses some of its bite.

Matthew Broderick and David Cross

The situation, after all, is a classic pressure cooker. Orgon, a wealthy patriarch, has invited the piously self-regarding Tartuffe into his home and handed him power over both property and family. Orgon’s wife Elmire, his children Mariane and Damis, the sharp-tongued maid Dorine, and the clear-eyed rationalist Cleante all see the danger immediately—but each attempt to expose Tartuffe only tightens Orgon’s devotion. What should be a delicious escalation of hypocrisy and menace instead unfolds with Tartuffe kept deliberately small, shifting the comic weight onto everyone scrambling around him.

Ikechukwu UfomaduFrancis Jue

By contrast, David Cross as the dumbstruck Orgon, is delightful; he plays the kind of guy who could be standing in a room while Tartuffe touches his wife’s butt, and he would still say, “What a virtuous man.” Cross’s humor comes from that blind devotion: he sees only what flatters his delusions, entirely missing the turmoil around him. He makes his total cluelessness truly entertaining. Bianca Del Rio, winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, all but stops the show as Orgon’s mother Mme Pernelle, the self-appointed moral judge of everyone else’s behavior. Drawing some of the loudest applause of the night, she scolds, she lectures, she pontificates, proving that drag camp and classical satire pair beautifully, like champagne and caviar.

Lisa Kron and Emily Davis

Amber Gray brings sly intelligence and emotional ballast to Elmire, Orgon’s long-suffering second wife, holding the chaos together. Emily Davis and Ryan J. Haddad sparkle as Mariane and Damis, balancing exasperation with crisp comic timing. In the grand tradition of Commedia dell’Arte, Lisa Kron’s Dorine is a textbook servetta: wily, quick-witted, and endlessly funny. Francis Jue makes Cleante’s rational patience impossibly patient, slowunexpectedly funny by leaning into stillness, while Ikechukwu Ufomadu (“Ziwe”) is effortlessly charming as Valère, Mariane’s lover. It is a joy to watch them fully embrace the play’s comic potential, but the shine becomes matte when Tartuffe appears.

Amber Gray, David Cross and Matthew Broderick

Heather Christian’s original music and Enver Chakartash’s handsome period costumes repeatedly give the production a jolt of energy, lifting it whenever the pacing slackens. There is real pleasure here, and plenty of it. The result may not be a seamless reinvention of Molière, but it is a lively, funny, and unmistakably contemporary Tartuffe. In the end, the most unsettling figure onstage isn’t Tartuffe at all, but the society that keeps inviting him in, revealing how easily moral rot disguises itself as righteousness, and how eagerly we play along.

David Cross and Lisa Kron

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photos by Marc J. Franklin

Tartuffe
New York Theatre Workshop, 79 E. 4th St.
Tue–Fri at 7:30; Sat at 2 & 7:30; Sun at 2 (check for holiday schedules)
1 hour 50 minutes, no intermission
ends on January 25, 2026
for tickets, call 212.460.5475 ($99+), visit NYTW

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Amber Gray and Matthew Broderick