The original Belle surprised the Beauty and the Beast cast in Vegas

Paige O’Hara voiced Belle in 1991. On Friday she turned up at the touring stage production and met the woman playing the role now.

Paige O’Hara created Belle.

On Friday, Sept. 18, she walked into a theater in Las Vegas to watch someone else play her.

O’Hara visited the North American touring production of “Beauty and the Beast the Musical” at The Smith Center, and met the cast onstage after the performance.

Who plays Belle in the Beauty and the Beast tour?

Kyra Belle Johnson currently plays Belle on the tour. Fergie L. Philippe is the Beast, though Devin Archer was in the role the night O’Hara attended.

Meeting the original voice of a character you perform eight times a week is a particular kind of experience, and the cast’s reaction to it was posted publicly afterward.

The production’s social account described welcoming “Paige O’Hara, the original voice of ‘Belle’ from the animated feature,” to the show.

Who is Paige O’Hara?

The voice and singing voice of Belle in Disney’s 1991 animated “Beauty and the Beast,” and a Disney Legend.

She came to the role from Broadway rather than from voice work, which shaped the character in a way that outlasted the film. Belle’s songs were written for a stage voice, and the performance carries that.

“Beauty and the Beast” went on to become the first animated film nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The stage adaptation followed in 1994 and has been running somewhere in the world almost continuously since.

Is Beauty and the Beast the Musical still touring?

Yes. The current North American tour is a new production of the stage musical, and it has been playing dates across the country this year.

The Smith Center is Las Vegas’s main performing arts venue, which is a different circuit from the resident Strip shows and tends to get the larger touring productions.

O’Hara has stayed close to the role over the decades. She has reprised Belle for Disney projects, appeared at D23 and fan events, and paints Disney-licensed artwork, much of it of Belle.

There is also a practical thing happening when an originator visits a touring cast. Regional tours play a lot of cities, a lot of nights, to audiences who may never see the show again. A visit like this is the kind of thing a company remembers for the rest of the run.

The tour continues in other cities, and the Las Vegas engagement at The Smith Center has concluded.

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

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Hat Tips:

• WDW News Today (Sept. 20, 2026), the visit, the date, the venue and the current tour casting

• Beauty and the Beast the Musical official social accounts, the post welcoming O’Hara

• D23, O’Hara’s Disney Legend recognition

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