Anneliese van der Pol is best known by Disney fans as the redheaded, cheerful, and slightly dimwitted sidekick Chelsea on the popular Disney Channel Show ‘That’s So Raven’ from back in the day. The show centered around Raven-Symone, who played a high schooler with the ability to predict the future. With the help of her two friends Chelsea and Eddie, Raven constantly set out to prevent whatever horrible thing she’d foreseen (which was usually something mild like a bake sale table collapsing or a crush seeing someone embarrass themselves), only to end up causing the debacle in the process!
Raven, Chelsea, and Eddie were a dynamic trio that made ‘That’s So Raven’ a very popular Disney Channel show–but did you know that Anneliese van der Pol has also played a Disney princess? And not just any Disney princess; Anneliese played Belle from ‘Beauty and the Beast’, one of the heavy-hitters from the classic Disney princess lineup!
Anneliese was the last actress to play Belle on Broadway, with the first actress to play the French ingenue being Susan Egan from ‘Hercules’–and Belle was actually Anneliese’s first Broadway role! Not many actresses are chosen to play the leads on Broadway in their Broadway debut, but if you check out the videos from Anneliese’s performances below, you’ll get an inkling as to why she won the role.
Many Disney fans were surprised to learn about Anneliese’s Broadway role–and many fans didn’t even know that the actress had such incredible singing abilities, either!–until she attended the Disney Princess Concert at Disney Springs recently. Anneliese also teamed up with Susan Egan, her fellow Belle actress, to wish ‘Beauty and the Beast’ a happy thirtieth anniversary in the following video.
Happy 30th Anniversary to the @DisneyAnimation classic Beauty and the Beast from @IAmSusanEgan and @anneliesevdp, part of the cast of #DisneyPrincessConcert who recently visited @WaltDisneyWorld for its 50th anniversary! ✨ #DisneyWorld50 pic.twitter.com/fatvu9brAx
— Disney Parks (@DisneyParks) November 22, 2021
