Running Time: 1 hour and 55 minutes including one 15-minute intermission
Bug
by Tracy Letts
directed by David Cromer
starring Carrie Coon, Namir Smallwood
with Randall Arney, Jennifer Engstrom, Steve Key
ON BROADWAY AT THE
SAMUEL J. FRIEDMAN THEATRE
IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING OUR PHONE-FREE EXPERIENCE:
To protect the privacy of our performers, MTC is partnering with Yondr for this production to ensure performances are phone-free. Upon arrival, all phones must be powered off and locked in Yondr pouches. Guests maintain possession of their phones and can unlock them at intermission as needed. All pouches will be opened at the end of the performance.
CLICK HERE to read a Content Warning for Bug (includes plot spoilers).
From Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tracy Letts (August: Osage County) and Tony Award-winning director David Cromer (Prayer for the French Republic, The Band's Visit) comes the Broadway premiere of Steppenwolf’s acclaimed staging of a cult classic about an unexpected and intense romance between a lonely waitress (Carrie Coon) and a mysterious drifter (Namir Smallwood). What begins as a simple connection between two broken people in a seedy Oklahoma motel room twists into something far more dangerous. When reality slips out of grasp, paranoia, delusion, and conspiracy take over in this sexy psychological thriller. The New York Times warns, "Buckle up and brace yourself because Bug is obscenely exciting."
Bug is produced in association with Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
Support for Bug is provided by the Anna L. Weissberger Foundation.
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For over 50 years, MTC has been acclaimed for identifying, fostering and supporting extraordinary artists at all stages of their careers and for the consistent quality, range and originality of our over 600 premieres, which include nearly 20% of all of the new plays on Broadway since we opened the Friedman in 2003. Much of this work has gone on to be mounted around the country and the world, appearing frequently on annual “most-produced” lists and amounting to a significant contribution to the American theatrical canon. MTC productions have earned 7 Pulitzer Prizes, 31 Tony Awards, 52 Drama Desk Awards, and 49 Obie Awards, amongst many other honors.
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Bug contains blood, cigarettes, smoke/haze, loud noises and strobe lights.
Cast
Carrie Coon
Agnes White
Carrie Coon’s work spans stage, television, and film. Her portrayal of Honey in the Broadway revival of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? earned her a Tony Award nomination. Since then, she’s appeared Off-Broadway in Placebo (Playwrights Horizons) and Mary Jane (New York Theatre Workshop), and has been a company member with Steppenwolf Theatre (2019). Her television credits include “The Leftovers” on HBO (Critics’ Choice Award), “Fargo” on FX (Emmy Award nomination), “The Gilded Age” on HBO (Emmy Award nomination, Screen Actors Guild Award nomination), and “The White Lotus” (Emmy Award nomination) on HBO.
Namir Smallwood
Peter Evans
Namir Smallwood joined the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble in 2017. Steppenwolf: You Will Get Sick, The Book of Grace, The Seagull, Bug, True West, BLKS, Monster, Man In Love, The Hot L Baltimore, Last Night and the Night Before. Broadway: Pass Over. Off-Broadway: Pipeline, Pass Over (Lincoln Center). Chicago: Primary Trust (Goodman); Charm (Northlight Theatre); The Grapes of Wrath (The Gift Theatre); East Texas Hot Links (Writers Theatre). Regional: Marin Theatre Company, Pillsbury House Theatre, Ten Thousand Things, Guthrie Theater. International: True West (Galway International Arts Festival). Television: “Chicago Fire,” “Betrayal,” “Elementary,” “American Rust” (Showtime/FreeVee); “Power Book IV: Force” (STARZ). Film: Rounding, About Time, Bailey’s Blues.
Carrie Coon
Agnes White
Namir Smallwood
Peter Evans
Randall Arney
Dr. Sweet
Randall Arney joined the Steppenwolf Theatre Company ensemble in 1984 and served as artistic director from 1987-1995. Steppenwolf (directing): True West, Slowgirl, The Seafarer, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Death and the Maiden, Curse of the Starving Class, Killers, The Geography of Luck, Picasso at the Lapin Agile (directed subsequent national and international productions). Steppenwolf (acting): Born Yesterday, Ghost in the Machine, The Homecoming, Frank’s Wild Years, You Can’t Take It with You, Fool for Love, True West, Balm in Gilead, Coyote Ugly. As artistic director of Steppenwolf, Arney oversaw the creation of a new state-of-the-art theater, which is Steppenwolf’s current home. Broadway transfers under his leadership include The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, The Song of Jacob Zulu (six Tony Award nominations) and The Grapes of Wrath (1990 Tony Award – Best Play). Arney recently served as the artistic director of the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles (1999-2017). Education: MFA, Illinois State University; he has taught at the University of California Los Angeles, Steppenwolf, around the US and in Tokyo. Member: SAG-AFTRA, SDC, AEA.
Jennifer Engstrom
R.C.
Off-Broadway: Excuse My Dust, The Words Of Dorothy Parker. Regional: Simpatico (McCarter Theatre), A Streetcar Named Desire (Williamstown Theatre Festival), One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest (Steppenwolf Theatre), MacBeth (Barbican Theatre), Norte Dame Shakespeare Festival. Chicago: Sky Girls (Northlight Theatre), The Mutilated, Fatboy, Eric LaRue Simpatico, The Moors, The Hothouse (A Red Orchid Theatre), Sweet Bird Of Youth (Goodman Theatre), A Streetcar Named Desire (Writers Theatre).
Steve Key
Jerry Goss
Broadway: SWEAT. Off Broadway: The Effect (Barrow Street Theatre); Blue Surge (The Public Theater). National Tours: August: Osage County, SWEAT. Regional: Bug, One Arm, The Libertine, As I Lay Dying (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); Feathers & Teeth, Vigils, Zoo Story, Blue Surge (Goodman Theatre); Grace, Better Late (Northlight Theatre); Rest, Circle Mirror Transformation (Victory Gardens Theater); Brothers Karamazov (Lookingglass Theatre); The Unseen (A Red Orchid Theatre); Misery, The Rainmaker, Orpheus Descending (American Blues Theater); Coyote On A Fence, Talk Radio (Shattered Globe Theatre). Film: Public Enemies, Hayseed, Canvas, 1,000 Acres. Television: “Power Book IV: Force,” “South Side,” “Evil,” “FBI: Most Wanted,” “The Good Fight,” “Boss,” “Chicago Fire,” “Elementary,” “Mob Doctor,” “Law & Order: SVU.”
Randall Arney
Dr. Sweet
Jennifer Engstrom
R.C.
Steve Key
Jerry Goss
Creative
Tracy Letts
Playwright
Tracy Letts is the author of The Minutes (Pulitzer finalist), Linda Vista, Mary Page Marlowe, The Scavenger’s Daughter, Superior Donuts, August: Osage County (Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award for Best Play), Man from Nebraska (Pulitzer finalist), Bug, and Killer Joe. He won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in Play for his performance in the Tony Award winning revival of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In 2002, he joined the Steppenwolf Ensemble and appeared in American Buffalo, Betrayal, The Pillowman, The Pain and the Itch, The Dresser, Homebody/Kabul, The Dazzle, Glengarry Glen Ross, and Three Days of Rain. Film and television credits: Little Women, Ford v. Ferrari, The Post, Lady Bird, The Lovers, Indignation, Christina, The Big Short, Wiener-Dog, Guinevere, “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty,” “The Sinner,” “Homeland,” and “Divorce.”
David Cromer
Director
New York credits include Dead Outlaw; Good Night, and Good Luck; The Antiquities; The Counter; I’m Almost There; Prayer for the French Republic; Camp Siegfried; A Case for the Existence of God; The Sound Inside; The Band’s Visit; The Treasurer; The House of Blue Leaves; Brighton Beach Memoirs; Nikolai and the Others; The Effect; When the Rain Stops Falling; Tribes; Adding Machine; Our Town; and Orson’s Shadow. For his work he has received a Tony Award, three Tony Award nominations, a Drama Desk Award, three Obie Awards, three Lortel Awards, and in 2010 was named a MacArthur Foundation fellow.
Takeshi Kata
Scenic Design
Broadway: Water for Elephants (Tony nomination); Prayer for the French Republic, Clyde’s (Drama Desk); Derren Brown: Secret. Off-Broadway: Atlantic, NYTW, Playwrights, The Public, Rattlestick, Second Stage, Signature, Vineyard. Regional: Alliance, American Players Theatre, Berkeley Rep, DCPA, Geffen, Goodman, Guthrie, Hartford Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum, Steppenwolf, The Old Globe, Yale Rep, among others. Awards: Drama Desk, Obie, Jeff, Suzi Bass and Michael Merritt Award for Excellence in Design and Collaboration. Teaching: associate professor, University of Southern California, School of Dramatic Arts. Other: proud father to two beautiful humans, Emma and Kai.
Sarah Laux
Costume Design
Broadway: Dead Outlaw, John Proctor Is the Villain, Prayer for the French Republic, Kimberly Akimbo, The Band’s Visit, Fully Committed, The Humans. Selected: Gruesome Playground Injuries (Seaview), Queens (MTC), Ceilidh (Noisemaker), Lowcountry (Atlantic), Wish You Were Here (Playwrights Horizons, Lucille Lortel nomination); The Wanderer (Paper Mill Playhouse); Man From Nebraska (Second Stage); Jerry Springer: The Opera (The New Group, Obie Award). Television: “Godfather of Harlem” (season two – season four), “High Fidelity.” Film: Not Okay, The Sixth Reel, Freakshow. IG: @lauxy12
Heather Gilbert
Lighting Design
Broadway: Little Bear Ridge Road; Good Night, and Good Luck (Tony nomination); Dead Outlaw, Parade (Tony nomination,
Drama Desk nomination); The Sound Inside (Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle nomination, Tony Award nomination); Cult of
Love (Second Stage). Regional: Steppenwolf, Goodman, The Muny, Center Theatre Group, Studio Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Magic Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Pasadena Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and much more. Heather teaches lighting at the University of Michigan.
Josh Schmidt
Sound Design
MTC: debut. Broadway: Thérèse Raquin (Roundabout/Studio 54); The House of Blue Leaves (Walter Kerr); Brighton Beach Memoirs
(Nederlander). Off-Broadway: Fifty Words (MCC Theater); About Alice (TFANA); Dinner With Friends (Roundabout); Model Apartment (Primary Stages); 3 Kinds of Exile (Atlantic); others. Film: The End (2024). As composer: Adding Machine (Minetta Lane),
A Minister’s Wife (Lincoln Center), many others. Regional: over 300 productions at venues across the country. Commissions: Metropolitan Opera. Teaching: Ehle/Harris Kenan Fellow Artists in Residence at UNCSA, winter 2026. Member: ASCAP. Awards: Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Jeff, ASCAP, NEA/TCG, Prague Quadrennia, Sundance Theatre Lab UCross 2012, many others.
J. Jared Janas
Hair & Makeup Design
Select Broadway: Punch; Dead Outlaw; John Proctor Is the Villain; Glengarry Glen Ross; Buena Vista Social Club; Our Town; Once Upon a Mattress; Mary Jane; Prayer for the French Republic; Purlie Victorious; Good Night, Oscar; Sweeney Todd; Ohio State Mur-ders; Jagged Little Pill; Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune; Gettin’ the Band Back Together; Bandstand; Indecent; Sunset Bou-levard; The Visit; The Real Thing; Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill; Motown; Peter and the Starcatcher; and The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. Recent Off-Broadway: Masquer-ade, Sally & Tom (The Public, Drama Desk nomination) and Yours Unfaithfully (Mint Theatre, Drama Desk nomination).
Gigi Buffington
Dialect & Vocal Coach
Broadway: Liberation; John Proctor Is the Villain; Good Night, and Good Luck; Cult of Love; Eureka Day; Romeo + Juliet; Job; Stereophonic; The Outsiders; Mother Play; Prayer for the French Republic; Grey House; Between Riverside and Crazy; Cost of Living; The Minutes; Clyde’s; Slave Play (remount); Pass Over; Linda Vista; Straight White Men. Selected Off-Broadway: Tartuffe, Meet the Cartozians, Caroline, Trophy Boys, King James, Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Corsicana, Evanston Salt Costs Climbing, Downstate, Jonah, On Sugarland. Eight seasons Steppenwolf, one season at RSC. Arts professor, Tisch, NYU.
Marcus Watson
Intimacy Coordinator & Fight Director
(he/him) is a New York–based intimacy coordinator and director, fight director and teaching artist in NYC. As a queer artist with a foundation in stage combat, gymnastics and physical storytelling, he champions authentic LGBTQ+ representation. His violence and intimacy work has been seen on and off Broadway; as well as on Netflix, HBO, Peacock, Hulu, Showtime and others. Marcus pulls techniques from his extensive background in physical storytelling to ensure that the story being told is clear, safe and intentional. He is honored to be a part of this amazing production of Bug! Find him on IMDB or IDC Professionals.
JC Clementz
Casting
Director of casting and artistic operations at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Broadway: Purpose, Little Bear Ridge Road, The Minutes, Linda Vista, Pass Over. Steppenwolf highlights include the world premieres of Downstate (also at National Theatre, U.K., and Playwrights Horizons, Artios Award) and King James (also at Center Theatre Group and Manhattan Theatre Club). JC is also a theatre director and a proud member of SDC and the Casting Society. jcclementz.com
Caparelliotis Casting
Additional Casting
Select MTC: Cost of Living; Summer, 1976; Skeleton Crew; Ink. Select Broadway/Off-Broadway: 2:22 A Ghost Story (upcoming), Grey House, The Comeuppance, Ohio State Murders, Macbeth, The Minutes, Sunset Baby, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Waverly Gallery, The Boys in the Band. Select theatres: Signature NYC, Atlantic, Ars Nova, The Old Globe, CTG, Donmar Warehouse (consulting CD). Television: “New Amsterdam” (NBC, series casting), “The Boys in the Band” (Netflix, original casting).
Zoë Adams
Associate Director
Broadway: Eureka Day (MTC, assistant director). Off-Broadway: Caroline (MCC, associate director), Short New Play Festival 2025 (Red Bull Theater), The Christine Jorgensen Show (59E59). Regional: The Wizard of Oz, Sis-ter Act (Impact Arts). Other collaborations: Glamour, Spoke Media, New York Stage and Film, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Working Theatre. 2024–2026 Drama League Stage Directing fellow; MFA, directing, Columbia University; SDC associate. Love to Tom. zoecraigadams.com
Christine D. Freeburg
Production Stage Manager
MTC debut. Regional cred-its include Marriott Lincolnshire, Chicago Shakespeare, The Court Theatre, Looking-glass Theatre, Northlight Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, seven summers at The Weston Playhouse and 19 seasons at Steppenwolf Theatre. Ms. Freeburg is an assistant professor and head of the stage management department at The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago. She is wife to Thom and proud mother of Joan Marie. For Malcolm, always.
Amanda Michaels
Stage Manager
is thrilled to be back at the Friedman! Broadway: Dead Outlaw, Be More Chill, Moulin Rouge!, Come From Away, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Thérèse Raquin, The Children, A Bronx Tale. Off-Broadway/NYC: Encores! Urinetown, Mack & Mabel, The Public, Signature Theatre, Atlantic Theater, Lincoln Center/LCT3, Second Stage. Regional: Paper Mill, Berkeley Rep, Hartford Stage, Bucks County Playhouse, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Two River Theater, Shakespeare Theatre of NJ. Also a professional quilter. @BroadwayQuilting. Love and thanks to my family and Sean.
Tracy Letts
Playwright
David Cromer
Director
Takeshi Kata
Scenic Design
Sarah Laux
Costume Design
Heather Gilbert
Lighting Design
Josh Schmidt
Sound Design
J. Jared Janas
Hair & Makeup Design
Gigi Buffington
Dialect & Vocal Coach
Marcus Watson
Intimacy Coordinator & Fight Director
JC Clementz
Casting
Caparelliotis Casting
Additional Casting
Zoë Adams
Associate Director
Christine D. Freeburg
Production Stage Manager
Amanda Michaels
Stage Manager