January 8 was opening night for the Broadway debut of Tracy Letts' Bug at Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, and the reviews are in. Find out what critics have to say about the production, a transfer from Chicago's Steppenwolf, below.
Carrie Coon and Namir Smallwood are starring as Agnes White and Peter Evans, respectively. Both are reprising their performances from the Chicago run, alongside co-stars Randall Arney (You Can't Take It With You) as Dr. Sweet, Jennifer Engstrom (Sweet Bird of Youth) as R.C., and Steve Key (Sweat) as Jerry Goss. Understudies Ian Duff, Michael Laurence, and Kristen Sieh round out the company. Casting is by JC Clementz, with additional casting by Caparelliotis Casting and Kelly Gillespie. David Cromer is directing.
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Read the reviews below.
1 Minute Critic (Matthew Wexler)
Entertainment Weekly (Shania Russell)
The Guardian (Jesse Hassenger)*
New York Stage Review (Frank Scheck, Roma Torre)
New York Theatre Guide (Joe Dziemianowicz)
The New York Times (Jason Zinoman)*
The Washington Post (Naveen Kumar)*
*This review may require creating a free account or paid subscription.
Playbill will continue to update this list as reviews come in.
Coon, Letts' offstage wife, returns to Broadway for the first time since her debut performance in the 2012 revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, in which she starred as Honey opposite Letts, also a Steppenwolf transfer. She has spent the bulk of her career on the screen, including playing Bertha Russell in HBO's Broadway star-packed The Gilded Age and the recent season of The White Lotus.
WATCH: Tracy Letts Was Inspired to Write Bug After the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing
Set in a seedy Oklahoma motel room, Bug centers on the unlikely romance between a lonely waitress and a mysterious and paranoid drifter. The longer they talk, the more the waitress begins to adopt his neuroses. The work premiered at London's Gate Theatre in 1996, with a revised version playing Off-Broadway's Barrow Street Theatre in 2004, winning the Lucille Lortel and Obie Awards for Best Play. A movie adaptation was released in 2006.
The production features scenic design by Takeshi Kata, costume design by Sarah Laux, lighting design by Heather Gilbert, sound design by Josh Schmidt, and hair and make-up design by J. Jared Janas. Gigi Buffington is the production's dialect and vocal coach, and Marcus Watson is the intimacy coordinator and fight director. Christine D. Freeburg serves as production stage manager.
Click here to buy tickets to Bug on Broadway.