{"id":10488,"date":"2026-06-12T21:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T18:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/?p=10488"},"modified":"2026-06-13T02:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T22:35:14","slug":"there-are-no-ghosts-at-the-grand-announces-tony-nominated-actor-as-lead-wins-top-award-at-the-tribeca-games-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/2026\/06\/12\/there-are-no-ghosts-at-the-grand-announces-tony-nominated-actor-as-lead-wins-top-award-at-the-tribeca-games-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"There Are No Ghosts at the Grand Announces Tony-Nominated Actor as Lead, Wins Top Award at the Tribeca Games Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The upcoming genre-blending \u201cmusical Lovecraftian renovation\u201d game There Are No Ghosts at the Grand has announced Broadway actor and singer Alex Brightman as the voice of its lead character, Chris. Brightman has been nominated twice for Best Actor in a Musical at the Tonys \u2014 in 2016 for School of Rock and 2019 for Beetlejuice. He\u2019s currently starring in Schmigadoon! on Broadway and voices multiple characters on the animated series Hazbin Hotel.<\/p>\n

The reveal comes on the heels of the game taking the top prize among 12 submissions at the 25th anniversary of the Tribeca Games Festival in New York City. There Are No Ghosts at the Grand is the debut from British studio Friday Sundae, and I had the chance to play a 30-ish minute demo and speak with Anil Glendinning, Friday Sundae\u2019s co-founder and managing director, at the Tribeca Festival ahead of their win. <\/p>\n

Glendinning emphasized just how bootstrapped the studio is, which has allowed for a highly nontraditional but collaborative development process especially in casting. For the main player character, \u201cwe wanted someone who\u2019s able to be sinister, but also funny and sincere, but also shady and a little bit of a liar,\u201d Glendinning said. \u201cBy 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<\/em>. By pure luck, we were able to make a connection with him through some of the other video game people that we knew, but it was just pure chance. We\u2019re big believers in providence.\u201d<\/p>\n

That scrappy approach applied to how they found most <\/em>of their actors, some of whom are musicians and singers first. Glendinning said they\u2019d adapt the game\u2019s characters to the performers themselves, including each of the leitmotifs. \u201cIt actually comes from the style of music they naturally perform,\u201d he said. \u201cWe would alter characters based on the actors and musicians we were working with. There\u2019s a lot of different influences that come into making this unique collaborative blend we created, rather than coming from the auteur perspective where there\u2019s a singular genesis and a unified vision. It\u2019s very much a collective effort with a small group of artists, musicians, developers, and writers to put something together, and I think that\u2019s why it feels so eclectic.<\/p>\n

Friday Sundae didn\u2019t set out to make a musical-forward game, but the songs \u201cspoke so much about the characters as well as our multicultural cast,\u201d Glendinning said. \u201cLots of games have lyrical soundtracks. There\u2019s only a short leap from what South of Midnight did to what we\u2019re doing.\u201c<\/p>\n

Glendinning said they treated this process \u201clike a band.\u201d They\u2019d give their voice actors scripts as they were coming into the studio and encouraged them to improvise against Glendinning. \u201cIt feels smarter than it is in part because we are so flexible because we do use some of the lines they say when they think they\u2019re not being recorded [laughs<\/em>]. [Brightman] said, \u2018If you want to use that then use that, that\u2019s just me being me.\u2019 We were like, \u2018You just be you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing we\u2019re not allowed to use is when they start swearing because we\u2019re aiming for a teen rating,\u201d Glendinning said.<\/p>\n

There Are No Ghost at the Grand is available to play as a demo on Steam now and is expected to come out later this year on PC and Xbox.<\/p>\n

Leanne Butkovic (she\/they) is an Editorial Project Manager at IGN, where they’ve also written about TV, movies, and games.<\/em><\/p>\n

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