What drives people to descend into the madness of conspiracy theories? That's the central question explored in Tracy Letts' Bug, currently making a long-awaited Broadway debut via Manhattan Theatre Club, which transferred from director David Cromer from Chicago's Steppenwolf. Opening night is April 8 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

In today's post-QAnon, so-called "fake news" world, Bug feels pointedly timely—maybe even enough to be a little too on the nose. But the play's journey to the Main Stem has been a long one. Playwright Letts was first inspired to write the play in the wake of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, as he told Playbill at the production's recent press day.

"We’d never really seen anything like it," Letts said. "And I think for a lot of Americans at the time, it was a real-eye opener, about how deep the roots of anti-government conspiracy theory went, and how passionately they were felt by a strata of our society."

But don't worry about that making the play too heavy, says star Carrie Coon (of The Gilded Age and White Lotus fame, and also Letts' real-life wife). "Tracy’s plays are always funny," says Coon. "He says, ‘If they’re laughing, they’re listening.'"

READ: The 'Punk Rock' Return of Carrie Coon

See the full interviews with Letts, Cromer, and the cast (also including Namir Smallwood, Randall Arney, Jennifer Engstrom, and Steve Key) in the video below.

Coon and Smallwood are starring as Agnes White and Peter Evans, respectively. Both are reprising their performances from the Chicago run, alongside co-stars Arney (You Can't Take It With You) as Dr. Sweet, Engstrom (Sweet Bird of Youth) as R.C., and 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.

Coon is returning 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: Carrie Coon Leads The Gilded Age Cast in Stephen Sondheim's 'Send in the Clowns'

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.

close gallery

0 of

Photos: Bug on Broadway

Next Slide  

You may also like

• 
  Photos: Edred Utomi, Jin Ha, More in Hamilton on Broadway
• 
  The Most Popular Plays of 2025 (According to PLAYBILLDER)
• 
  Photos: Nicholas Christopher in the Playbill Studio