“Bug,” the psychological thriller by Tony- and Pulitzer-winning playwright Tracy Letts that debuted in 1996, will have its Broadway premiere this season. The play will begin performances at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on December 17 with an official opening set for January 8, 2026. David Cromer directs.
“Bug” will feature the five-member cast of Cromer’s 2021 staging at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, led by Carrie Coon as Agnes White and Namir Smallwood as Peter Evans. They will be joined by Randall Arney as Dr. Sweet, Jennifer Engstrom as R.C. and Steve Key as Jerry Goss.
Lately known to television audiences for “The Gilded Age” and “The White Lotus,” Coon appeared alongside now-husband Letts in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” on Broadway. Smallwood starred in Broadway’s “Pass Over” and TV’s “American Rust.” Arney was Artistic Director of Steppenwolf from 1987 to 1995 and has directed and starred in dozens of their stagings. Engstrom and Key are regulars on the Chicago stage.
“I love this production of ‘Bug,’” said Letts in a statement. “It’s scary and funny and intimate, and it features five great stage actors working at the peak of their powers, under the direction of my long-time collaborator David Cromer. But what I love most about it is just how involving it is. When an audience is pulled into a story — when they lose themselves in it — it’s a kind of sorcery. And it only happens in live theater. I’m thrilled Manhattan Theatre Club is taking this on. It’s the right theatre with the right play at the right time.”
“Bug” is a cult classic about an unexpected and intense romance between a lonely waitress (Coon) and a mysterious drifter (Smallwood). What begins as a simple connection between two broken people in a seedy Oklahoma motel room twists into something far more dangerous. When reality slips out of grasp, paranoia, delusion and conspiracy take over in this sexy psychological thriller.
“Bug” made its debut in 1996 at London’s Gate Theatre, with Shannon Cochran as Agnes and Michael Shannon as Peter. The pair also starred in the play’s acclaimed off-Broadway debut at the Barrow Street Theatre in 2004, under the director of Dexter Bullard. Legendary film director William Friedkin adapted “Bug” into a feature film in 2006, with Shannon, Ashley Judd and Harry Connick, Jr. featured in the cast.
After the success of “Bug,” Letts went on to become one of the most prolific modern American playwrights, winning the Tony Award for Best Play and Pulitzer Prize for Drama for “August: Osage County” in 2008, and premiering the plays “Man from Nebraska,” “Superior Donuts,” “The Realistic Joneses,” “Linda Vista” and “The Minutes.” As an actor, he won a Tony Award for starring in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” in 2013.
“Bug” is a co-production of Manhattan Theatre Club and Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre.
This article previously appeared on Broadway.com.
