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.