NEED TO KNOW
- Carrie Coon stars in Broadway premiere of Bug, opposite Namir Smallwood
- Play, written by her husband Tracy Letts, will open Jan. 8, 2026 at Manhattan Theatre Club
- Bug was adapted into a 2006 film starring Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon and Harry Connick Jr
Carrie Coon is capping off a breakout year with a trip back to where it all began.
Over a decade after making her Broadway debut in the 2012 revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? — a role that earned her a Tony Award nomination — The White Lotus and The Gilded Age actress, 44, is returning to the boards this winter, in the Main Stem premiere of Bug.
Written by Coon’s husband Tracy Letts, the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright behind August: Osage County and Tony-winning actor who co-starred with Coon in Virginia Woolf, Bug was first staged in London in 1996. The psychological horror-thriller has been produced multiple times since then, including Off-Broadway in 2004 and at the famed Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago in 2020.
That staging, paused during the COVID pandemic and revived in late 2021, is now being re-created for Broadway by Manhattan Theatre Club.
Directed by Tony Award winner David Cromer (Prayer for the French Republic at MTC, The Band’s Visit), it will feature the full cast from Steppenwolf including Coon, Namir Smallwood, Randall Arney, Jennifer Engstrom and Steve Key.
Performances begin Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Opening night is Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026.
“I love this production of Bug,” Letts, 60, said 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 theatre.”
“I’m thrilled Manhattan Theatre Club is taking this on,” he added. “It’s the right theatre with the right play at the right time.”
Bug — which was adapted into a 2006 film starring Michael Shannon, Ashley Judd and Harry Connick Jr. — follows an intense romance between a lonely waitress named Agnes (Coon) and a drifter named Peter (Smallwood). What begins as a tentative connection inside a seedy Oklahoma motel room quickly descends into chaos as paranoia, delusion and conspiracy infest their lives.
“Tracy’s voice is one of the most daring and original in the American theatre, and this piece shines a light on the ways that fear, isolation, and conspiracy can infiltrate the human psyche,” Manhattan Theatre Club Artistic Director Lynne Meadow said in a release. “It’s exactly the kind of vital work MTC is proud to produce — a play that provokes thoughtful conversation and reminds us of theatre’s power to reveal the invisible forces that shape our world.”
“We’re pleased to be bringing director David Cromer back to the Friedman after his acclaimed production of Prayer for the French Republic graced our stage last year, and to be welcoming the talented cast — led by Carrie Coon and Namir Smallwood — all of whom are making their MTC debuts.”
MTC’s 2025-2026 also includes James Graham’s Punch and David Lindsay-Abaire’s The Balusters. Ticket information can be found on MTC’s website.
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