RIALTO CHATTER: Anika Noni Rose Headed Back to Broadway?

In a recent interview with Essence Magazine, Broadway star and current Disney Princess revealed that among her upcoming projects is starring in a new Broadway-bound musical that she has co-composed. 

Says the star of her upcoming plans to Essence: "Well, I'm co-composing a musical for Broadway. I'm reading a lot, too, and I'm always looking for books that are a possibility to make. I'd love to do some foreign film and also, an action movie where I could wear a boot--a heel--and beat somebody's butt."

To read the full interview on Rose and her thoughts on being Disney's first black princess, click here.

No stranger to the stage, Rose has stared on Broadway in Caroline or Change (for which she won Tony and Theatre World awards), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Footloose. She also appeared in the film Dreamgirls, and the television series The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

Disney's Princess and the Frog, features for the first time four major Broadway voices - Anika Noni Rose, Jen Cody, Micheal Leon Wooley, and Peter Batlett - and had it's nationwide opening on December 11.

The film is set in New Orleans and features Walt Disney Studio's first black princess.

Oprah Winfrey rounds out the cast as Eudora, the mother to Princess Tiana (Anika Noni Rose). The film also stars such stage (and movie) greats as John Goodman, Jenifer Lewis, Keith David, Michael-Leon Wooley (American Buffalo, Little Shop of Horrors), and Peter Bartlett (Drowsy Chaperone, Beauty and the Beast).

Currently appearing in Shrek The Musical, Broadway favorite Jen Cody is also in the film as well, voicing Charlotte LaBouff.

The movie is written and directed by John Musker and Ron Clements and features the music of Randy Newman, who wrote 6 new songs for the film.

A musical set in the legendary birthplace of jazz -- New Orleans -- The Princess and the Frog tells the story of Princess Tiana, a young African-American girl living amid the charming elegance and grandeur of the fabled French Quarter. From the heart of Louisiana's mystical bayous and the banks of the mighty Mississippi comes an unforgettable tale of love, enchantment and discovery with a soulful singing crocodile, voodoo spells and Cajun charm at every turn.

Princess Tiana joins eight other Disney princess characters, who have generated $3 billion in global retail sales since 1999. Disney Princesses is the fastest-growing brand for the company's Consumer Products division reported .

For more information visit, www.disney.go.com.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride