Bug

Bug opened at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on January 8, and is scheduled to run through March 8.

By Elazar Abrahams

Broadway marketing loves a buzzword, and Bug is currently being sold as an intense psychological thriller. Audiences report that they leave the theater completely rattled! The play, penned by Tracy Letts, certainly has the ingredients for something like that, with the two acts set entirely in a grimy motel room with a pair of characters slowly descending to madness in a pressure cooker of their own making. Yet for all the hype, the show lands with a mere whimper.

It’s very disappointing, because the production is not lacking in talent. Carrie Coon is very good here, as expected, and her role is pretty transformative. From the mezzanine, it is hard to recognize her. Namir Smallwood is convincing as his character’s paranoia deepens and begins to infect the room. But Bug never becomes anything even close to scary, at least not in the way its reputation suggests.

The fatal flaw in the show is that Bug does not operate like a mystery. The script never really invites you to question what is happening. There is no genuine doubt about whether the central pair are perceiving something real. The bugs read as a delusion immediately, and the story doesn’t have twists waiting to shock crowds, it just kind of escalates as one would expect. Perhaps those less used to watching anything with a PG-13 rating would disagree, but the few gory and dreadful moments barely phase.

An intermission doesn’t help with ratcheting up the tension either. The play might work better as a single uninterrupted plunge. A 15 minute break right on the precipice of something interesting means Bug’s grip loosens right as it should be tightening.

Knowing Letts’ other works, whether The Minutes, which ends on a horrifying 180-degree turn that shocks you, or even August: Osage County with all its explosive scenes of familial drama, one simply expects more.

Bug was written in 1996, but arrives on Broadway now in a moment where conspiracy theories loom large. Stories like the one depicted are now common, with many disaffected people finding themselves sucked down rabbit holes that do them no good. While it is fun (and obviously horrifying) to see the parallels to a uniquely 2026 American epidemic in the piece, that might be the reason this feels tame. A schizophrenic veteran tin foiling his house, maiming his own limbs to get what he thinks are government bugs out of his system? Honey, that’s just another Tuesday.

That does not mean the show has nothing to say. The most interesting idea in Bug is how quickly a lonely person can be pulled into someone else’s delusional logic, and how desire for connection can make the irrational feel safer than the real. Ultimately though, it feels like an unrealized promise. There are no jolts, just steady predictability that is mildly grim.

Find tickets and more information HERE.