Auli'i Cravalho is more than just a Disney princess

The actress returns to star in Moana 2, while making her Broadway debut and embracing edgier roles

- Sarah Bahr

NEW YORK - On a chilly November evening, wearing a light leather jacket and a scarf, American actress Auli'i Cravalho was freezing as she plunged through a pair of gleaming doors into a candlelit bar in midtown Manhattan.

"I do not know how people layer here. I'm in total awe," said Cravalho, who had just come from a photo shoot at a park on the Lower East Side.

Like the plucky young heroine she voices in Disney's Moana films (2016 to present) - the sequel, Moana 2, was the top-grossing film in Singapore over the past weekend - Cravalho grew up in a tropical climate in Kohala, Hawaii.

But recently, the 24-year-old had been living in an apartment in the New York neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, with her partner and her best friend, while starring in the Broadway revival of Cabaret.

Cravalho plays singer Sally Bowles in the John Kander and Fred Ebb musical, first staged in 1966, about a Berlin nightclub during the rise of fascism.

That night would be her first back in the show since she sat out a few performances after she "had come this close to vocal hemorrhaging".

"I have a newfound respect for the leads of these musicals because, my gosh, it is tough," said Cravalho. It had been a whirlwind few weeks, but she was gregarious as she sipped tea poured from a miniature teapot.

In addition to performing an emotionally demanding role eight times a week, there were promotional appearances for Moana 2, the follow-up to the 2016 Polynesian animated adventure - a global phenomenon that was the most-streamed movie on any American platform in 2023, according to Nielsen.