Alex Brightman, the Broadway star behind two Tony nominations, is lending his voice to a genre-bending game that just claimed the top prize at the Tribeca Games Festival. The actor, known for his roles in School of Rock and Beetlejuice, will voice Chris, the lead character in There Are No Ghosts at the Grand, a musical Lovecraftian renovation game from British debut studio Friday Sundae.
The casting announcement follows the game's victory at the 25th anniversary Tribeca Games Festival, where it topped 12 submissions competing in the showcase. Brightman is currently performing in the Broadway musical Schmigadoon! and voices multiple characters on the animated series Hazbin Hotel.
According to Anil Glendinning, Friday Sundae's co-founder and managing director, landing Brightman came down to serendipity and an unconventional development philosophy. "We wanted someone who's able to be sinister, but also funny and sincere, but also shady and a little bit of a liar," Glendinning explained. "By pure chance, we came across a clip of Beetlejuice on Broadway, and just on the off chance I thought, THAT guy would be really funny in the game."
The studio's scrappy, bootstrapped approach shaped nearly every aspect of production, particularly casting. Rather than fitting performers into predetermined roles, Friday Sundae adapted characters around the actors themselves, tailoring even the game's leitmotifs to match each performer's natural musical style. Most of the voice cast doubled as musicians and singers, allowing their authentic influences to shape their characters from the ground up.
Glendinning described the creative process as collaborative rather than auteur-driven. "We would alter characters based on the actors and musicians we were working with," he said. "It's very much a collective effort with a small group of artists, musicians, developers, and writers to put something together, and I think that's why it feels so eclectic."
The team treated voice recording sessions like a band rehearsal, handing scripts to actors as they arrived at the studio and encouraging improvisation. Glendinning said they captured some of the most authentic moments when performers thought the recording had stopped. "He said, 'If you want to use that then use that, that's just me being me.' We were like, 'You just be you,'" Glendinning recalled of working with Brightman. The studio does draw one line: they avoid using swearing during recording, as they're aiming for a teen rating.
The musical element emerged organically rather than by design. "We didn't set out to make a musical-forward game, but the songs spoke so much about the characters as well as our multicultural cast," Glendinning said. The approach falls in line with other narrative-driven games that have woven song into gameplay, though Friday Sundae's execution aims for something more integrated.
There Are No Ghosts at the Grand is currently playable as a demo on Steam and is scheduled to launch later this year on PC and Xbox.
Author Emily Chen: "Brightman's casting feels like a genuine lightning strike rather than a marketing move, and that tells you everything about how Friday Sundae operates."
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