Breaking News: Brooke Tansley continues as Belle through May 1

Brooke Tansley, who started her run in Disney's Beauty and the Beast on September 14th, will continue as Belle through May 1 a production spokesperson confirmed. Tansley was originally scheduled to depart in January.

"My agent left me a very serious message that I had to call right away. Knowing that my stay in Beauty and the Beast was quickly ending, I figured it was THE CALL. To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to having to try and find work again either. " Brooke confided to BroadwayWorld. "My agent then told me that I had been extended! I screamed, I cried. I cried again. I just couldn't believe all this was happening - I didn't expect it and couldn't be more excited. I absolutely love the whole company. We're a happy family/cast and I feel so blessed that I will be with them for several more months."

And the very first thing Brooke did after speaking with her agent? "I hung up and immediately called my mom!"

Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST features Alan Menken's Academy Award-winning score, songs by the late Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (including the Academy Award-winning title song and the show-stopping "Be Our Guest"), plus songs written especially for the stage by Alan Menken and Tim Rice (including "If I Can't Love Her" and the recent addition "A Change In Me"). Book is by Linda Woolverton, author of the original screenplay. Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is choreographed by Matt West and directed by Robert Jess Roth. Sets are by Stan Meyer, costumes by Ann Hould-Ward, and lighting by Natasha Katz.

Tansley's other credits include Regional: Smokey Joe's Cafe (Downtown Cabaret), tap dancing en pointe as Helen Hayes in At Wit's End (Florida Stage), Wendy in Peter Pan (Mill Mountain), world premiere play In Service, The Nutcracker (Moscow State Ballet) and was most recently seen as Penny in Hairspray.

Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is the classic love story of Belle, a young woman in a small, provincial town, and the Beast, who is really a prince trapped in a spell placed on him by an enchantress. If the Beast can learn to love and to be loved, the spell will be broken and he will be transformed back to his former self. But time is running out, and if the Beast does not learn his lesson soon, he will be doomed for all eternity.

For more information about Disney's Beauty and the Beast, click here.

For more information about Brooke Tansley, visit her official website.

Photo Copyright: Joan Marcus