NEW YORK (AP) - Christy Carlson Romano, the voice of the Disney Channel's animated "Kim Possible," laughed hysterically while rehearsing her first big sex scene on stage. Later, she felt dirty.

Intimate interludes are always uncomfortable for actors, but this one was a little different. Puppets in, ahem, compromising positions.

It's not puppet porn, though. It's "Avenue Q" on Broadway, where Romano recently debuted in dual roles as "Kate Monster" and "Lucy the Slut."

The 24-year-old actress — who is onstage for much of the Tony-winning musical about a world where people and furry beings coexist — worried about pulling off the shocking scene between Kate and her love interest, Princeton, portrayed by actor and puppet master Howie Michael Smith.

"I learned it for maybe an hour and I was, like, done with it," Romano says of the X-rated romp. "I was like, 'That's it. I never want to do that again. I feel so dirty.' ... And I would watch it every night and I'd go, 'I can't do that. I can't do that.' And then, basically, you just start laughing. ... You just get sucked into the world that is 'Avenue Q.'"

By the end of the scene, a crowd-pleaser for wide-eyed tourists and jaded New Yorkers alike, "you feel like everyone in the room shared something really special," Romano says over a midday omelet at theater district hangout Angus McIndoe.

At a recent performance, Romano worked overtime using puppeteering skills she learned from her cast mates. A human backdrop to her colorful characters, she wore an all-gray outfit, tailoring her performance for sweet schoolteacher Kate and femme fatale Lucy, a lounge performer. The slender star's oversized features — dark Bambi eyes, wide smile and chiseled jaw — add to the whimsy.

"The puppetry for me right now is the easiest thing," says Romano, looking like an urban cowgirl in frayed jeans, boots, a loose red top and the word "GRACE" tattooed on the inside of her right wrist. "Once you actually feel yourself integrated with the puppet's movements, it's like, 'Omigod, that's what that's about? I can do that again.' And then you continue to do it and then it's like you don't even think about it."

Romano is somewhat of a theater veteran. The Connecticut native booked her first show — as Molly in an Atlanta production of "Annie" — at 8 after being discovered in a dance competition. She has appeared in a national tour for the musical "Follies" and on Broadway as Belle in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast."

But she is perhaps best known for her Disney Channel roles as Shia LaBeouf's strait-laced older sister on the sitcom "Even Stevens" and the animated "Kim Possible," for which she voiced the title character. "Even Stevens" ran from 2000 to 2003; "Kim Possible" bowed last year after a five-year-run.

Ever the TV sibling, Romano feels protective of LaBeouf, now a full-fledged movie star, and jokingly scoffs at the 22-year-old actor's heartthrob status.

"That started happening a while ago before he really even hit it big and girls were saying, 'Oh, I love Shia. He's so cute.' ... I know stuff about Shia that would gross you out. ... I know stuff that I could blackmail him so good," she says, a "gotcha!" glint in her eye.

Romano, who is based in Los Angeles, struggled to find work as a result of the four-month Hollywood writers strike that ended in February. So her manager hooked her up with "Avenue Q," her first trip back to Broadway since "Beauty and the Beast" four years ago.

She says she's graduated from playing Disney princesses.

"When I was Belle, I was treated like a kid," she says. "And, I mean, I had the responsibilities of an adult but I was 19 and a lot of people were a little worried about whether I could handle it or not."

But "Avenue Q," she says, is "a different animal altogether and I'm not a princess. ... I never wanted to be treated like a princess. I like to get my hands dirty and I like to work ... and I like to meet my fans and I like to just really be committed 110 percent to the point where I'm exhausted. And that's what I missed (about theater)."

"Avenue Q" producer Robyn Goodman said she "fell in love" with the actress, whose final performance is Nov. 23.

"She has the purity of spirit you need (in the show) because there's a kind of innocence about those puppets. ... Some people come in and they're wonderful singers, dancers, actors and they just can't get the rhythm of the puppet. It's a kind of coordination — it's either in your body or it isn't. And she was good right away, I have to say," Goodman said.

Romano has written a young adult novel "Grace's Turn," recorded songs for Disney movies and TV shows and mimicked the voice of Angelina Jolie for the "Kung Fu Panda" video game. Now she's considering a cabaret act in New York.

"I wouldn't be surprised if I ended my career in theater, like, if my last job I ever did was some amazing production — some straight play or something like Patti LuPone's 'Gypsy,'" she says. "It would be awesome to go out with a bang like that."

By ERIN CARLSON
Associated Press Writer

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