Review of Bug on Broadway, 2026

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

I used to live in New York City when I went to college, as I attended the Fashion Institute of Technology for my undergraduate degrees, but when I left the city because of the COVID-19 pandemic and never really returned, I knew that I was regretting my time in college not taking advantage of student deals for Broadway and Off-Broadway productions.

Granted, I had never been exposed to that kind of environment, or theatre at all, so when I started working in New York theatre and spent some time in that world, I jumped back into it. This blog has been a way to document my journey as a theatre lover and watcher, especially considering I don’t like to do short-form video. Written criticism has always been my thing more.

I was headed back up to New York for a weekend of theater, and one of the shows that caught my eye was Bug. In fact, one of the entire reasons I wanted to go up and see theatre was to go and see Bug. I’ve been to MTC and used their program where young people can get cheaper tickets, but I paid full price for my mezzanine ticket towards the back.

This is one of the smaller theaters on Broadway, so any seat in the house is probably good. I could see everything on stage quite easily. This production is also a small one, with only five actors, so it’s not like there was a ton happening on stage compared to a musical with big dance numbers.

Let’s get into my review! I don’t want to ramble too much in the introduction, as I know it’s not what people are here for.

A woman falls deep into conspiracy theories after a new man comes into her life.

Bug was written decades ago, having first premiered in London in the late nineties, which may explain some of its references. It opens in a hotel room in Oklahoma, where Agnes, a middle aged woman who works as a waitress, lives. She’s hiding out from her ex-husband Jerry, who we see throughout the play break into her room and try to force his existence onto her.

When her friend R.C. visits one night, she introduces her to Peter. Peter seems normal and chill at first, which is why R.C. even brought them together, and Agnes entertains Peter, allowing him to stay on the floor of her rented room when he doesn’t want to leave at night.

But the more Peter and Agnes meet up and talk to each other, the more Agnes is exposed to his paranoia. We learn Peter isn’t exactly who he says he is. He is a veteran of the Gulf War, but Agnes starts listening to him more when he says things about UFOs, the war he served in, conspiracy theories, and how people at Jonestown were actually assassinated, not committing collective suicide together.

What sets them over the edge though is when he spots a bug on her bed. He tells her that the bugs were sent to spy on them and have trackers, which leads the duo to start thinking that they’re being watched by the government and other people who want to wrong them. Suddenly Agnes is isolated from everyone and everything she knows as she falls deeper into the hole.

That sets the tone for the rest of the play, as Agnes, who is kind of depicted as this lonely woman who will latch onto anything after the circumstances of her life, latches specifically onto Peter and what he’s saying. There’s some disturbing content packed into this specific production, especially when it comes to body horror.

There were people gasping in horror and saying “Oh my god” at several different moments throughout the show, and there were some moments where I felt like I had to look away. I consider myself good with handling that in movies and whatnot, but I definitely had to look away for some of these scenes because I found them to be grotesque for the stage.

Overall Thoughts

I would say I liked seeing this play, even though it feels weird to say that and I don’t think I would see it again. All of the actors are absolutely fantastic at showing us a pocket of this world for a brief amount of time, and I regret that I had to dash out during the bows to catch the last bus out of the city before a massive blizzard. Coon especially was a standout, although Smallwood definitely brought his character to life in a way that unsettles a casual watcher.

I do think the play is a bit outdated almost thirty years later. The references it make are relevant, but I do fear that with younger audiences and new generations that those references are going to fly over their head. It’s also eerie how what was considered out there a couple of decades ago has actually become normalized in so many different ways.

Not only do we have politicians spouting similar rhetoric, but social media and access to the Internet has made it so more people are like Peter and Agnes. They might not make the same drastic decisions they made, but they certainly are saying similar concepts and rhetoric in their daily lives.

All of this is to say that this is a thought provoking play if you can handle it. I don’t know if I could do a round 2, but i say watch it if you can!

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