B'way Update: Bug; Cats

Carrie Coon and Namir Smallwood in 
Bug at Steppenwolf Theater.
Credit: Michael Brosilow

Manhattan Theater Club will present the Broadway debut of Tracey Letts' Bug at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater with performances beginning Dec. 17 and opening on Jan. 8, 2026. The production, directed by Tony winner David Cromer (The Band's Visit, Good Night and Good Luck) comes to Broadway after a 2021 run at Chicago's Steppenwolfe Theater. Bug premiered in London in 1996 and after American productions in Ithaca, NY, Washington, DC, and Chicago, the play premiere Off-Broadway at the Barrow Street Theater in 2004. Michael Shannon recreated his role from the London and Off-Broadway productions in the 2006 film version directed by William Friedkin.

Set in a seedy motel room, cocktail waitress Agnes encounters Gulf War vet Peter who draws her into his paranoid conspiracy theories involving UFOs, the war in Iraq, the Oklahoma City bombing, cult suicides and government experiments on soldiers. The cast includes Tony and Emmy nominee and Letts' wife Carrie Coon (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Gilded Age, The White Lotus) as Agnes White, Namir Smallwood (Pass Over) as Peter Evans, Randall Arney (Steppenwolf’s You Can’t Take it With You, True West) as Dr. Sweet, Jennifer Engstrom (Sweet Bird of Youth at Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) as R.C., and Steve Key (Sweat, Off-Broadway: Blue Surge, The Effect) as Jerry Goss.

Lloyd Webber Rebrands

Cats: The Jellicle Ball will transfer
to Broadway in spring 2026.
Credit: Evan Zimmerman

Andrew Lloyd Webber has announced his Really Useful Group has been rebranded as LW Entertainment. In addition, Lord Lloyd Webber has announced the Off-Broadway reimaging of Cats, known as Cats: The Jellicle Ball which received several awards last season including a special citation from the New York Drama Critics Circle, and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical, will transfer to Broadway in spring 2026. Informations on dates, casting and a theater will be announced at a later date. Details on a production of Lloyd Webber's latest musical The Illusionist will be forthcoming. LW properties also include the Evita revival playing the West End, an immersive version of Phantom of the Opera to open Off-Broadway, and Jesus Christ Superstar which recently had a three-night sold-out run at the Hollywood Bowl. A possible tour of arenas for JC Superstar was mentioned in the press release.

Well, I'll Let You Go Extends

Bubba Weiler's Well, I'll Let You Go has been extended at the Space at Irondale to Sept. 12. Because of a scheduling conflict, Quincy Tyler Bernstine will leave the cast on Aug. 29. Tony nominee and Obie winner Marin Ireland will join the cast Sept. 2-12.

2025-26 Broadway/Off-Broadway Calendar
Summer 2025
Aug. 21--Twelfth Night (Public Theater/Delacorte)

Fall 2025
Sept. 2--The Wild Duck (TFANA) (previews begin; opening TBA)

Sept. 6--Galas (Little Island)

Sept. 7--Masquerade (Phantom of the Opera) (Lee's Art Shop)

Sept. 9--House of McQueen (The Mansion at Hudson Yards)
Sept. 10--The Brothers Size (The Shed)

Sept. 11--Prince Faggot (Studio Seaview)
Sept. 15--Saturday Church (NYTW)
Sept. 16--Art (Music Box)

Sept. 16--When the Hurlyburly's Done (Public)
Sept. 21--Weather Girl (St. Ann's Warehouse) 
Sept. 25--The Other Americans (Public)

Sept. 28--Waiting for Godot (Hudson)
Sept. 28--The Honey Trap (IRT)

Sept. 28--And Then We Were No More (La Mama)
Sept. 29--Punch (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman)

Sept. 30--Caroline (MCC)
Oct. 8--Beetlejuice (Palace) (previews begin; opening TBA)
Oct. 15--Oh Happy Day (Public)

Oct. 15--Let's Love (Atlantic Theater Company)
Oct. 16--Ragtime (Vivian Beaumont/LCT)
Oct. 22--Endgame (Druid/Irish Arts Center) (previews begin; opening TBA)

Oct. 23--The Baker's Wife (CSC) (previews begin; opening TBA)
Oct. 24--Did You Eat? (Public)

Oct. 28--Liberation (James Earl Jones)

Oct. 28--Romy and Michelle: The Musical (Stage 42)

Oct. 29--Bat Boy (Encores!)

Oct. 30--Little Bear Ridge Road (Booth)
October--Nothing Can Take You From the Hand of God (Playwrights Horizons)
Nov. 3--Kyoto (LCT/Newhouse)

Nov. 5--Queens (MTC/City Center) 
Nov. 10--Queen of Versailles (St. James)
Nov. 13--Oedipus (Roundabout/Studio 54)
Nov. 13--The Seat of Our Pants (Public)
Nov. 16--Chess (Imperial)
Nov. 17--The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (New World Stages)
Nov. 18--Meet the Cartozians (Second Stage/Signature Center)

Nov. 18--This World of Tomorrow (Shed)

Nov. 20--Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) (Longacre)
Nov. 20--Initiative (Public)
Archduke (Roundabout/Laura Pels)
The Burning Cauldron of Fiery Fire (Vineyard)
Cottonfield
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Oratorio of Living Things (Signature Theater Company)
Practice (Playwrights Horizons)
Sugar Daddy

Winter 2025-26

Dec. 4--A Christmas Carol (Perelman Performing Arts Center)

Dec. 8--Marjorie Prime (Second Stage/Hayes)

Dec. 11--Anna Christie (St. Ann's Warehouse)

Dec. 16--Tartuffe (NYTW)

Dec. 18--Amahl and the Night Visitors (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)

Jan. 8--Bug (MTC/Samuel J. Friedman)

Jan. 2026--Ulysses (Elevator Repair Service/Public)

Feb. 1--Coriolanus (TFANA) (previews begin; opening TBA)

Feb. 11--Monsters (MTC/City Center)

Feb. 25--Meat Suit, or the shitshow of motherhood (Second Stage/Signature Theater)

February--Marcel on the Train (CSC)

Antigone (This Play I Read in High School) (Public)

Chinese Republicans (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

The Dinosaurs (Playwrights Horizons)

Jesa (Public)

Public Charge (Public)

The Reservoir (Atlantic Theater Company)

Mother Russia (Signature Theater Company)

What We Did Before Our Moth Days

2026

Dolly: An Original Musical

Wanted (formerly Gun and Powder)

Spring 2026

March 23--Hamlet (Teatro La Plaza/TFANA)

April 8--Becky Shaw (Second Stage/Hayes)

May 7--The Receptionist (Second Stage/Signature Center)

May--The Emporium (CSC)

: Girls : Chance : Music (Vineyard Theater)

Animal Wisdom (Signature Theater Company)

The Balusters (MTC/Friedman)

Cats: The Jellicle Ball

Dog Day Afternoon

Fallen Angels (Roundabout/Todd Haimes)

Indian Princesses (Atlantic Theater Co.)

Joe Turner's Come and Gone

The Lost Boys (Palace)

Montauk

My Joy Is Heavy (NYTW)

No Singing in the Navy (Playwrights Horizons)

Rheology (Playwrights Horizons)

The Rocky Horror Show (Roundabout/Studio 54)

2026-27

Death of a Salesman

Private Lives

Summer 2026

July 14--The Whoopi Monologues (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)

Future--10 Things I Hate About You; Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death; Beaches the Musical; Beat Street; Black Orpheus; Coal Miner's Daughter; Come Fall in Love--The DDLJ Musical; Crazy Rich Asians; The Devil Wears Prada; Ella: An American Miracle; Eurovision Song Contest; Everybody's Talking About Jamie; Fahrenheit 451; Fire and Rain: The James Taylor Musical; Frida, the Musical; Game of Thrones; Get Happy; The Griswolds' Broadway Vacation; High Noon; Imitation of Life; The Interestings; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; The Karate Kid; La La Land; The Mousetrap; Nancy Drew and the Mystery at Spotlight Manor; The Nanny; The Normal Heart/The Destiny of Me; Pal Joey; Particle Fever; Purple Rain; The Queen's Gambit; Rear Window; The Secret Garden; Sing Street; Slumdog Millionaire; Soul Train; Studio 54; Waking Ned Devine; Working Girl.

2025-26 Broadway Season Breakdown

New Plays

The Balusters

Call Me Izzy

Cottonfield

Dog Day Afternoon

Liberation (transfer from Off-Broadway)

Little Bear Ridge Road

Montauk

Oedipus

Punch

New Musicals

Dolly: An Original Musical

The Lost Boys

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

Queen of Versailles

Play Revivals

Art

Becky Shaw

Bug

Fallen Angels

Joe Turner's Come and Gone

Marjorie Prime

Waiting for Godot

Musical Revivals

Beetlejuice

Cats: The Jellicle Ball

Chess

Mamma Mia!

Ragtime

The Rocky Horror Show

Solos/Specialties
Jeffrey Ross: Take a Banana for the Ride