NEW YORK - Wait till her friends start asking 10-year-old Kiah Victoria what she did over the summer.

Tonight, the girl from Prince George's County, whose biggest role before this was a bit part in Cinderella, will stand on a Broadway stage and debut as Young Nala - best friend of lead character Simba - in Disney's The Lion King.

How she fares before the public remains to be seen. But during a recent rehearsal at the New Amsterdam Theatre on West 42nd Street, her fellow actors were ready with the accolades. "She's amazing. A beautiful girl," said cast member Tony James. "She's a little Toni Braxton." Adds dancer Dennis Lue, "She got pipes."

Belting out "I Just Can't Wait To Be King," Kiah's larger-than-life voice - impressive even without a microphone - flies out from her slight build and projects to the middle of the theater. "She can sing," her father, Adruma Victoria, says with unmistakable pride. "She's beautiful, she works hard, and she's enthusiastic. I guess I'd better stop there."

Everybody look left, Kiah sings alongside fellow rookie cast member Derek Taylor, 12. Everybody look right. Everywhere you look, I'm standing in the spotlight. And make no mistake: She sings the passage as though she really means it.

It is hard not to notice just how grown up this 10-year-old is. Even when she's not needed on stage, she's off to the side practicing her moves, waiting patiently to be called back for more instruction. "She's very focused. She learns quickly," says resident dance supervisor Ruthlyn Salomans.

But on stage or off, rehearsing or not, Kiah has a smile as wide as the Cheshire Cat's. On this July afternoon, just two weeks before her debut, the soon-to-be-fifth-grader is energized and completely professional as she listens to direction. Salomans explains how far she can move around the stage - essential information, given the intricate backdrops that are constantly being lowered and raised during the two hour, 40 minute show. Kiah pays attention and does what she's told.

And there's more to learn. The big challenge today is learning how to navigate the extremely colorful, 6-foot-tall ostriches Nala and Simba ride in one scene. The ostriches are controlled by the actors inside them but have pegs on the back that the lion cubs climb. Although game, Kiah's not always fast enough. "One [time], the music started, and I was still climbing up," Kiah recalls with a laugh. "Then I had to get down and do it again."

During a break in the rehearsal, Kiah meets many of her fellow cast members for the first time, grinning widely and waving a fast, almost-shy smile. Dressed in a pink shirt, white pants and a corset (one of her costume pieces), she seems more like, for a split second, Kiah the child, not Kiah the professional - just an average girl who returned to New York from Maryland the previous day, after spending three days playing in a pool with her friends.

But the low-pressure respite doesn't last. After a five-minute break, just enough time for some water and a little candy, it's back to the business of rehearsing. And when rehearsing, Kiah is a far purr from a child.

Practice makes perfect

Since July 2, Kiah has been practicing up to six times a week, usually for a couple of hours each day. At the first rehearsal, she and Derek, as a young Simba, reviewed the story "so we could, like, get into it. And we went over our lines and things. Just, like, reviewed the whole thing. Kind of did that for a while, and then we actually worked on things. And we're still working on it."

Suspecting their daughter had talent, Kiah's father and mother, Fiona Victoria, got her an agent back in February. Clinton-based Linda Townsend told them about the The Lion King auditions, which are held continually. Kiah traveled to New York three times between March and May for auditions before getting the nod.

"I went through the hallways and shouted out, 'Kiah got Broadway!' " her beaming father recalled. "I'm very proud and very grateful. It's definitely a blessing. You live vicariously through your kids."

Not everything has come easily. At the beginning of the show, she plays a baby elephant, which she finds a little complicated. "It's just, the suit is heavy, but I still like it."

She's also having a little difficulty with some of the lyrics. The music mixes modern, Caribbean, pop and African influences. "I mostly get mixed up with the elephant part," Kiah says, "at the African words and stuff. But that's pretty much it."

Kiah really enjoys the graveyard scene, where she and Simba have a scary meeting with a couple of hungry hyenas. She likes the part with the ostriches, where the two young cubs rebel against their escort - the ever-comical bird Zazu - and sing about Simba becoming king. "That's really fun."

In fact, fun is the operative word with Kiah, who says the extra work the show requires is no problem, because other shows "are not as fun as The Lion King. Since it's so fun, it's, like, easier."

That sort of enthusiasm can't help but rub off on the other cast members. "By the last week, they are so excited ... almost bored, but ready to go," says Lue of the new young performers. "It's so infectious. I love that we have kids in the show."

Home away from home

Besides Kiah, several other kids have come from Maryland, including Tiana Kenney, the other young Nala, with whom Kiah will alternate performances. Tiana, who lives in Cheltenham, has been performing in the show since February. Derek, with whom Kiah will share the stage for about three of her four weekly performances, is from Waldorf.

Watching Kiah on stage, with her outsize singing, her obvious enthusiasm and her determination to do things right, there's little doubt she'll do the part of Nala proud. But take her outside the theater, and Kiah the 10-year-old re-emerges. Shy, quiet and a little reserved, she waits for her pepperoni pizza to cool down as she sits in the familiar surroundings of the Loew's movie theater, where she and her father spend a lot of time outside of rehearsals. They recently watched Like Mike, starring rapper Bow Wow ("He's all right," she says). Musically, she mostly enjoys R&B; and hip-hop and admires Celine Dion.

And, of course, The Lion King: She watched the movie repeatedly and knew all her lines and songs even before rehearsing began.

Then again, plenty of kids probably know the songs to The Lion King by heart. Although the play is nearly five years old, tickets are among Broadway's most coveted. The show won six Tony Awards in 1998, including Best Musical and Best Director (Julie Taymor, the first female winner).

The story, introduced to audiences in the 1994 Disney film, follows Simba as he deals with the death of his father, the king, and the future of the kingdom. His uncle, Scar, convinces Simba that he was responsible for the king's death, and the cub runs away. Nala, his childhood friend, eventually finds Simba and persuades him to return home and claim his birthright.

Familiar town

Disney gutted and renovated the New Amsterdam Theatre specifically for the 1997 opening of the Broadway version. The grand auditorium, a New York fixture (and former home of the Ziegfeld Follies) dating back to the turn of the century, is decorated with ornate moldings depicting flowers and ivy creeping up the walls, birds flying, even people posing on the ceiling.

Kiah's father is no stranger to the New Amsterdam. "I used to shine shoes in front of that theater for my first drum set when I was 11 years old," says Adruma Victoria, who grew up in Harlem.

For Kiah, playing Nala is quite a leap from her earlier roles. Her biggest part until now was a small role in Cinderella at New Hope Academy in Landover Hills, where she took after-school drama classes. "She stole the show with this tiny little part," said Concha Marchitelli, her director. "Kids wrote in about her few minutes in the show, not about Cinderella."

This year, she was set to play the lead in New Hope's production of The Wizard of Oz, but had to drop out because of The Lion King - which was the first part she ever auditioned for.

Maybe it's in the genes.

"She's the first Victoria to enter Broadway, and I have [three] generations of performers in my family," Adruma Victoria says. "My grandfather played guitar; my Dad was a vocalist; my mother was an opera singer, and I am a vocalist, drummer and producer. But you know, at her first try, she did more than all of us. Incredible."

Kiah and her dad moved to New York so she could do the show; while here, her father will home-school her. The young actress is in a six-month contract, which may be renewed, providing "Disney likes her," says her dad, and she doesn't grow too much (actors playing the young Nala cannot be taller than 58 inches; Kiah is 52 1/2 ).

What of life post-Lion King? "Hopefully, she'll get a couple of national commercials or maybe a movie role," her father says.

That sounds pretty good to Kiah. "Well, I wanna be a singer-slash-actress. You know Will Smith? I wanna be like him," she says. "Doing everything."