Nikki James and Aaron Tveit sign on for the CBS series BrainDead

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Broadway stars Nikki James, who won a Tony for her performance as Nabalungi in Matt Stone and Trey Parker's The Book of Mormon, and Aaron Tveit (pictured above) have joined the cast of the CBS series BrainDead, which is almost enough to make one wonder if the show is going to have musical sequences.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead is set to star in the series, which has a very clever and funny concept:

BrainDead follows a young fresh-faced Hill staffer getting her first job in Washington, D.C. and discovering two things: 1. The government has stopped working, and 2. alien spawn have come to earth and eaten the brains of a growing number of Congressmen and Hill staffers.

While Winstead will playing the fresh-faced staffer, named Laurel, James will be playing Rochelle, 

a medical resident whose father died as the result of a mysterious infection. She and Laurel team up to learn what happened to her father, and protect others from the same fate.

Tveit's character is 

Gareth, the Legislative Director to a top Republican senator, who is smart, hard-working, and ultimately responsible for helping to save the world.

Robert and Michelle King, Ridley Scott, David W. Zucker, Brooke Kennedy, and Liz Glotzer are all serving as executive producers on the show, with Judy Smith co-executive producing. BrainDead is a production of CBS Television Studios.

A premiere date for BrainDead has yet to be announced, but the series is expected to start airing next summer. I will be tuning in for sure.