Broadway's "Beauty and the Beast" has found its new Belle — on the Disney Channel.
Christy Carlson Romano is well known to fans of the television network. She portrays the super-striving Ren Stevens on its daytime series "Even Stevens" and is the voice of "Kim Possible," a prime-time animated series about your average high school girl out to save the world — even on a school night.
The 19-year-old Romano will join the long-running musical Feb. 17. She's the 13th actress to play Belle since the musical opened in New York in April 1994. "Beauty and the Beast," based on the celebrated animated film, will play performance No. 4,000 on Jan. 27.
The musical also will get a new Beast Feb. 17. Jeff McCarthy, last seen on Broadway in "Urinetown," joins the show for eight weeks.