‘BUG’: (left to right) Carrie Coon, Jennifer Engstrom, Steve Key & Namir Smallwood. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

BUG
By Tracy Letts
Directed by David Cromer
Through March 8, 2026
Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47^th Street
(212) 239-6200
https://www.manhattantheatreclub.com/shows/2025-26-season/bug/

By Scott Harrah

Bug may sound like the title of a schlocky 1970s exploitation horror film, but it is, in fact, a solid psychological thriller and one of the earlier plays by Pulitzer Prize– and Tony Award–winning playwright Tracy Letts. Originally produced in Chicago in 1996, the play later ran for nearly a year at the Barrow Street Theatre in New York from 2004 to 2005. Now revived on Broadway, Bug arrives in a riveting production that proves its unsettling power has not diminished. Nearly three decades later, the play remains a socially relevant suspense drama focused on drug abuse, paranoia, conspiracy theories, and psychological collapse.

Motel room from hell

The action unfolds almost entirely inside a rundown Oklahoma motel room—something like Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho relocated to the Great Plains. “White Lotus” star and Tony nominee Carrie Coon (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) plays Agnes White, a waitress with a drug problem and a troubled past. Coon’s portrayal of a woman in free fall is instantly powerful and haunting. It is difficult to look away as Agnes spirals, her profanity-laced dialogue revealing someone crying out for help while lacking the means to save herself.

Agnes soon meets Peter Evans (Namir Smallwood), a quirky drifter and Gulf War veteran who seems highly educated, his elaborate vocabulary hinting at intelligence, yet also mentally erratic. From there, the two develop a romantic attraction. As they grow closer, their relationship intensifies, revealing psychological fractures and dark secrets on both sides.

The exes

Two additional characters further complicate Agnes’ fragile reality. Her ex-partner and drug dealer, R.C. (Jennifer Engstrom), reinforces dependency while maintaining control through access to drugs, money, and a false sense of protection.

Agnes is also shaken by the sudden reappearance of her ex-husband Jerry Goss (Steve Key), a loud, abusive presence from her past. Jerry represents the danger Agnes already understands—immediate, physical, and unmistakably real—a threat that makes the play’s later paranoia feel less like a rupture than an extension of what she already knows.

Paranoia or reality?

Much of Bug centers on Peter’s belief that the motel room is infested with bugs—first bed bugs, later parasitic aphids implanted beneath the skin. Agnes soon adopts these fears as her own. As the story progresses, however, it becomes clear that neither Peter nor Agnes has a firm grasp on reality. Matters grow even more unsettling with the arrival of Dr. Sweet (Randall Arney), a mysterious figure claiming to be a military doctor who appears to understand both Peter and the alleged infestation.

Fine ensemble

With the action confined to a single space, Bug depends heavily on its ensemble to anchor the production.

Carrie Coon’s Agnes is both dynamic and arresting, capturing a woman whose loneliness and fragility leave her susceptible to nearly everyone in her path. Back in 2012, when Coon appeared in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, this reviewer described her performance as Honey as “manic virtuosity from start to finish.” Fourteen years later, Ms. Coon has sharpened her skills even further, delivering one of this Broadway season’s most physically punishing and relentlessly demanding performances. She is very much an actor at the top of her game.

As Peter, Namir Smallwood brings skillfully restrained and unnerving conviction to a role that demands sustained psychological pressure. His performance balances intimidation with moments of intimacy, allowing Peter’s beliefs to feel sincere even as they grow increasingly outlandish and chart his descent into madness. Together, Ms. Coon and Mr. Smallwood sustain the play’s escalating tension, their dynamic tightening as skepticism gives way to shared certainty.

Great supporting cast

The supporting cast complements the ensemble with equally assured performances.

Jennifer Engstrom gives R.C. a hard-boiled edge that never fully eclipses her concern for Agnes. Though clearly a corrosive influence, Ms. Engstrom suggests a long history of loyalty beneath the bravado. Her R.C. feels less like a villain than a deeply compromised lifeline to the outside world—someone capable of care, but unequipped to offer real help.

Steve Key is sharply effective as Jerry Goss, playing Agnes’ ex-husband as a loud, domineering presence driven by entitlement rather than affection. His scenes crackle with aggression, while Randall Arney’s Dr. Sweet provides a cooler counterbalance. Mr. Arney’s composed authority briefly promises clarity before the story veers toward a more tragic conclusion.

Superb direction and set design

Bug relies heavily on pacing and atmosphere, and director David Cromer keeps the tension tightly coiled throughout, never allowing the production to tip into cheap sensationalism. Takeshi Kata’s scenic design turns the motel room into more than a mere setting, while Heather Gilbert’s lighting and Josh Schmidt’s eerie sound design heighten the sense of claustrophobia and psychological confinement. Together, the visual and sonic elements reinforce the characters’ unraveling and the play’s pervasive sense of dread.

Quietly compelling revival

In the end, Bug proves far more complex than its pulpy title might suggest. While it may not rank as Tracy Letts’ finest play, what begins with the trappings of genre drama ultimately unfolds as a stark examination of belief, isolation, and human fragility. Written long before such thinking felt culturally familiar, Bug reveals Letts’ understanding of how fear can evolve into rigid, all-encompassing belief—an insight he would later expand in August: Osage County, his portrait of a very different, yet equally fractured, American family. For all its discomfort, Bug proves quietly compelling in this Broadway revival.

Published January 11, 2026
Reviewed at press performance on January 9, 2026.

‘BUG’: Carrie Coon. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘BUG’: Namir Smallwood. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘BUG’: Steve Key & Namir Smallwood. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘BUG’: (top photo) Jennifer Engstrom & Carrie Coon. (Bottom) Namir Smallwood. Photos: Matthew Murphy.

‘BUG”: (top) Steve Key & Namir Smallwood. (Bottom) Carrie Coon. Photos; Matthew Murphy.

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‘THE MINUTES’: (center) Noah Reid & (left to right) Jesse Mueller, Jeff Still, Tracy Letts & Cliff Chamberlain. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

THE MINUTES
Written by Tracy Letts
Directed by Anna D. Shapiro
Through July 24, 2022
Studio 54
254 West 54th Street
New York, NY 10019
(212-239-6200), www.TheMinutesBroadway.com

By David NouNou

Our Town gone awry.

Tracy Letts is a timely and a wonderful playwright but also a theatrical provocateur. Not that these can’t go hand in hand; just look at the likes of Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee. His ideas and the way they unfold are brilliant but they can go too far in the end. The adage that “less is more” certainly applies to Mr. Letts. At times, he needs a strong director to smooth out the extreme rough edges. Mr. Williams had Elia Kazan, Mr. Albee had Alan Schneider, and Mr. Letts needs a stronger director who doesn’t just rubber stamp what he writes in a script.

At a city council meeting room in Big Cherry (any town west of New York City and east of LA) USA, a meeting is about to convene. Brian Peel (Noah Reid of Schitt’s Creek fame) has just returned from his mother’s funeral in California, and being offered condolences from Mayor Superba (Tracy Letts) along with the rest of the council members. Peel wants to know about the minutes that took place the week before while he was out and the missing member Mr. Carp (Ian Barford). Starting with the council secretary, Ms. Johnson (Jesse Mueller) to senior members Ms. Innes (Blair Brown) and Mr. Oldfield (Austin Pendleton) to junior members Mr. Blake (K. Todd Freeman), Mr. Hanratty (Danny McCarthy) and Mr. Assalone (Jeff Still) all give him small talk, runarounds and exchange pleasantries but no one will give him a straight answer about the “unwritten yet” minutes or the whereabouts of Mr. Carp and why he is not at the meeting.

The play goes into high gear (often hilarious) once each councilman starts talking about grievances and the bill they want to pass. The mayhem probably takes place at any council meeting, but this one goes even further by re-enacting for Mr. Peel the heroism that took place in bringing the existence of their town Big Cherry to life replete with American soldiers, Native American Indians, and the Farmers Family.

Once the digging goes beneath the surface, it uncovers America’s soul and the sanitizing of history that has and is currently taking place, in places like Florida, Oklahoma or in any town, state or school that represses history. Mr. Letts has written a chilling play that is profound and mirrors the “good” folks and mayors in small-town America today.

As always, Mr. Letts has written meaty roles for an excellent ensemble cast whose names I’ve listed earlier. Each has a unique role: Mr. Letts’ mayor is a shark with a no-nonsense attitude. Noah Reid, making his Broadway debut, is perfect as the idealistic councilman (he may remind one of James Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington). Austin Pendleton as the oldest grousing councilman is a scream. Ian Barford, Blair Brown, K. Todd Freeman, Danny McCarthy, Jesse Mueller, and Jeff Still all lend their talents to elevate this ensemble.

There is a “but” here, and the but is how Mr. Letts chooses to end his plays. There were a couple of possibilities of ending this play satisfactorily without outrageous theatrics involved. This is where director Anna D. Shapiro should have stepped in to polish these rough edges with some fine-tuned editing and still made it a remarkable evening in the theatre. Just as he did in his epic work August: Osage County, Mr. Letts has a lot to say about the uncomfortable taboo topics in everyday American life.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 21, 2022
Reviewed at April 20, 2022 press performance.

‘THE MINUTES’: Jesse Mueller & Noah Reid. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘THE MINUTES’: Tracy Letts & Noah Reid. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

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‘LINDA VISTA’: Ian Barford & Caroline Neff. Photo: Joan Marcus

LINDA VISTA
Written by Tracy Letts
Directed by Dexter Bullard
Through November 10, 2019
Helen Hayes Theater
240 West 44th Street
(212-541-4516), https://2st.com/shows/linda-vista

By David NouNou

Tracy Letts as a playwright wrote the legendary epic August: Osage County, and as an actor he has given a definitive portrayal of George in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? I mention this because he is so good at everything he does. Whether on the screen or on stage, his performances ring true, but as a playwright he can be hit or miss. His Broadway follow-up to the illustrious August: Osage County was Superior Donuts—which at best was a disappointment. His current Linda Vista falls somewhere in between.

There is no doubt that Mr. Letts can write interesting, complex and flawed characters. The first act of Linda Vista is actually quite funny: a divorced man, Wheeler (Ian Barford), 50 and with a hip problem, is just moving to his new San Diego digs with the help of his best friend, Paul (Jim True-Frost). Wheeler is having a hard time adjusting to moving out of his ex-wife’s garage and leaving his troubled teenage son. This opening sets up Wheeler as an erudite but rigid know-it- all, and messed up. I mean really messed up. The exchange between the two is quite clever. Wheeler is in a dead-end job working as a camera repairman; he used to have ambitions to be a great photographer. Paul is concerned that Wheeler is not getting out much, so he fixes a double date with him and his wife, Margaret (Sally Murphy) and introduces the guy to Jules (Cora Vander Broek). They all go out to a karaoke singalong at a local bar.

With mixed feelings, Wheeler hits it off with Jules and they end up having a hysterical night of sex (hysterical for the audience), when in the middle of their second go round in walks Minnie, (Chantal Thuy), a 20-year-old pregnant Vietnamese next-door neighbor who has been thrown out of her apartment and has nowhere to go but ends up at Wheeler’s doorstep.

It’s in the second act that mayhem ensues. As in August: Osage County, no one comes out unscathed. The devastated and flawed have to pick up the pieces in their own way to survive, but somehow Wheeler keeps sinking lower to the point of losing his job. Maybe in the end he can start re-finding his redemption through his love of photography.

Mr. Letts knows how to write about white male flawed characters well, and his characters are extremely realistic. They have the same problems we do, but they have the nihilistic gene that thankfully most of us don’t have. The scenes are well written but director Dexter Bullard does not do an adequate job of editing the text. Scenic designer Todd Rosenthal has created a great set of the Linda Vista apartment complex in San Diego and various nearby locations, but again Mr. Bullard doesn’t utilize the scenes to properly fuse them into each other; the scenes just run into each other.

Cora Vander Broek—who until recently has been hidden away from Broadway in the hinterlands—is marvelous. Her Jules is heartbreaking. Having just broken up with a jerk and being quite vulnerable, she is a self-help “life coach” motivator on the rebound who thinks she has a good shot with Wheeler. Her breakup in the restaurant with him is shattering and crumbling. Just keep an eye on her self-respect moment towards the end; she speaks for every woman who has been scorned by a jerk and can move on with her head held high.

In the central role of Wheeler, I kept envisioning the charismatic Mr. Letts in the part of the disillusioned, washed-up wastrel.  A part like Wheeler needs an enigmatic actor who can be such a sh*t and still see the error of his ways and might find redemption in the end. Mr. Barford supplies Wheeler with the trappings of a heel, but can’t get us to hope for his ultimate salvation

Sally Murphy as Margaret gives a scorching performance in the second act, berating Wheeler for the person he is becoming.

There is a lot of good material in Linda Vista but with uneven writing and directing, it’s harder to roll the boulder up that mountain of empathy for a guy like Wheeler.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published October 16, 2019
Reviewed at October 15, 2019 press performance.

‘LINDA VISTA’: Cora Vander Broek & Ian Barford. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘LINDA VISTA’: Jim True-Frost & Sally Murphy. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘LINDA VISTA’: Chantal Thuy & Ian Barford. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘LINDA VISTA’: Cora Vander Broek & Ian Barford. Photo: Joan Marcus

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‘ALL MY SONS’: Tracy Letts & Annette Bening. Photo: Joan Marcus

ALL MY SONS
By Arthur Miller
Directed by Jack O’Brien
Through June 23, 2019
American Airlines Theatre
227 W. 42nd Street
(212-719-1300), www.roundabouttheatre.org

By Scott Harrah

Arthur Miller’s All My Sons is not as renowned as some of his other plays, but it is indeed one of his greatest. The tragic epic, originally produced in 1947, right after World War II, has volumes to say about war and people who profit from it, making Sons rather timely as we now live in a world where dictators are on the rise and populism and political divisiveness threaten to tear apart the U.S. and Europe. All My Sons was last mounted on Broadway back in 2008 in a production that starred John Lithgow, Diane Wiest, Patrick Wilson and Katie Holmes. Eleven years ago, the show seemed dated and mostly a vehicle for the all-star cast, but the drama is much more relevant in 2019 in this age of political chaos and instability.

Arthur Miller’s moralistic saga focuses on the emotionally fragile family of Joe Keller (Tracy Letts), owner of a factory that made defective parts for warplanes and sold them to the U.S. Air Force, resulting in crashes and the deaths of 21 servicemen.  Joe’s wife, Kate (Annette Bening), is a woman in complete denial, convinced that her soldier son Larry, missing in action for over three years, is still alive.  Son Chris (Benjamin Walker) spends a good portion of the first act trying to convince his parents that marrying girlfriend Ann Deever (Francesca Carpanini) is the right thing to do, and things really unravel when she suddenly arrives in town after being in New York for several years.  The mother is completely against her son marrying Ann because she was Larry’s fiancé.  Ann is also the daughter of Joe’s business partner, a man serving time in prison allegedly for the crimes involved with the Keller’s business.

Tracy Letts and Benjamin Walker have superb onstage chemistry as father and son.  One of their last scenes—an argument that gets brutally physical—is especially effective and riveting. Mr. Letts is brilliant as the stubborn father, and Mr. Walker is marvelous as his aggressive, caustic son.  Annette Bening is first rate and really looks and sounds like the Midwestern mother she’s portraying—screaming, crying and emoting in all the right places, in an authentic Middle American twang. She definitely delivers as the high-strung mother who refuses to accept reality, despite the fact that her family is deeply wounded and has completely fallen apart. Ms. Bening is primarily known for her Hollywood films and was last seen on Broadway in Coastal Disturbances in 1987. She proves she is a great stage actress here, with an imposing command of the stage.

Francesca Carpanini is perfect and peerless as Ann. She gives a scorching portrayal of Ann as a shrewd, quick-witted woman who has endured years of suffering during and after the war.

Douglas W. Schmidt’s set, featuring an old house and its yard, anchors the story well and is a big improvement over the minimalistic set in the 2008 production. In that revival, there were too many projections and video montages. Director Joe O’Brien keeps things straightforward here, with a simple black and white video projection of war planes preceding the first act. Mr. O’Brien keeps the focus on the story. Although not all cast members are up to the par of the task at hand, Mr. O’Brien gets superlative performances from the actors playing the lead roles.

All My Sons, with its ongoing themes about greed and the ugliness of war, is still topical today. Its story about the ethics of selling faulty airplane equipment is especially germane in 2019, considering all the news about Boeing, defective 737 Max jets and crashes. After the final curtain falls, All My Sons gets audiences thinking about the long-term impact of war on families, making it an unforgettable, important evening of theater.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 25, 2019
Reviewed at April 24, 2019 press performance.

‘ALL MY SONS’: Tracy Letts & Benjamin Walker. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘ALL MY SONS’: Tracy Letts, Benjamin Walker & Annette Bening. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘ALL MY SONS’: (left to right) Benjamin Walker, Hampton Fluker, Francesca Carpanini & Chinasu Ogbaugu. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘ALL MY SONS’: Hamilton Fluker, Benjamin Walker & Francesca Carpanini. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘ALL MY SONS’: Annette Bening. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘ALL MY SONS’: Tracy Letts & Annette Bening. Photo: Joan Marcus

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STAR-POWERED ‘JONESES’: Tracy Letts & Marisa Tomei in ‘The Realistic Joneses.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

THE REALISTIC JONESES
Written by Will Eno
Directed  by Sam Gold
Lyceum Theatre

149 West 45th Street
(212-239-6200), TheRealisticJoneses.com

By David NouNou

They say that the theatre has to constantly evolve in order to exist. It can take you to dizzying heights or it can go to abysmal nothingness. In the evolution of nothingness, I can only begin with the seemingly nothingness from my generation. There was Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot, Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story, among others. The 70s brought us Harold Pinter; hell, why pick one? Pick any of his plays. And for the millennials, we have Will Eno, who has mastered the art of writing about nothingness as wide as space permits, and by space I mean infinity. For no one can string sentences that just go in circles and end nowhere as well as he can.

The Realistic Joneses, consists of two couples, both of whom have the last name of Jones (what are the odds of that?), residing in some rural, rustic foresty area. There are Bob (Tracy Letts) and Jennifer (Toni Collette) and John (Michael C. Hall) and Pony (Marisa Tomei);  both husbands seem to be affected with some rare or the same brain disease, seems to be lethal but then with Eno you never know and both wives handle the situation differently. Jennifer deals with it realistically and tries to deal and understand the situation, while Pony lives in denial. The foursome all get acquainted one night while Bob and Jennifer are sitting on their porch, and John and Pony drop in on them unexpectedly, and the gabfest begins.

The play progresses in short vignettes where the couples get to know each other better as individuals and as couples. Nothing is said directly, but abstractly and they don’t come trippingly off the tongue. Lines are bandied around and as an audience member one has to sort them out to make some sort of semblance of them. In the end there is no resolution. It’s like being on a treadmill that goes nowhere, However, on a treadmill one at least hopes to lose a couple of ounces.

To add to the puzzlement here is what attracted big names like Toni Collette, Michael C. Hall, Tracy Letts and Marisa Tomei to such a project? In all fairness, they all give fine, detached performances, which is a necessity in any Will Eno play. Normally I am not the type of critic that likes to take notes, I prefer to absorb. However, there was one fantastic line that I had to write down so I wouldn’t forget it. It is said by Mr. Letts’ character Bob, “There is so much crap and pain in the world.”  And there is plenty of it at the Lyceum Theatre.

BIG TALENTS, CONFUSING SHOW: Toni Collette & Michael C. Hall in ‘The Realistic Joneses.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 10, 2014
Reviewed at press performance on April 9, 2014

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