First look photos of Beauty and the Beast's Josh Groban as the Beast

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Shania Twain as Mrs. Potts

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: A 30TH CELEBRATION — Shania Twain as Mrs. Potts. Christopher Willard/ABC

The country singer steps into the very complicated costumes of Mrs. Potts. "I had three different costumes, all adorned in great detail by hand with silks and embroidery," she tells EW. "I felt like a queen. Practical wasn't important to me. I just wanted to wear the gorgeous costumes as poised as possible to do them justice. They were a labor of love by the costume design department. Executive producer Raj Kapoor was considerate in making sure the costumes represented both Shania and Mrs. Potts. It made me giddy stepping into them."

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Broadway star Joshua Henry as Gaston

Hot off a run as Rapunzel's Prince in a Broadway revival of Into the Woods, Joshua Henry is enjoying a comedic stint as characters blinded by their own buffoonish arrogance. "I couldn't have been more prepared for Gaston than coming from Rapunzel's Prince because they both have never been told 'no' their entire lives," He says. "Everything is supposed to come easy to them. It's really funny when you see them come up against resistance."

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Director Hamish Hamilton with Martin Short as Lumiere

Martin Short trades Only Murders in the Building's dips for Lumiere's wicks. Rita Moreno, who plays the narrator, calls his performance "hilarious" and can't stop laughing as she tries to describe it.

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Derek Hough leads the team

While Jamal Sims choreographed most of the special's musical numbers, Dancing with the Stars judge Derek Hough (right, with microphone) stepped in to help with the finale — and showed up to rehearsal the day after the DWTS finale.

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Josh Groban gets Beastly

Operating this Beastly puppet was no small order. "His mouth was open," says executive producer Raj Kapoor of Groban's reaction when he first saw it. "He's like, 'I was not expecting this. It's so clever. I'm so in.'" Groban had to learn not only how to operate the puppet, but he also had to attend extensive costume fittings to ensure all the pieces fit him like a globe. "He was like, 'I'll do whatever,'" adds Kapoor. "'Because I already see what the vision is and it's so different.'"

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H.E.R. and Hamish Hamilton with Jon Jon Briones as Maurice

"Nobody knows how intense it was," H.E.R. says of making the celebration. " But also how much fun it was. That's why it didn't really matter how intense and how crazy it was or how much I had to learn because I was having so much fun doing it. It didn't feel like work."

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'Beauty and the Beast' songwriter Alan Menken Menking

Alan Menken, who composed the original score, and wrote the songs for Beauty and the Beast alongside lyricist Howard Ashman, makes a cameo appearance.

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Groban and Groban (well, Prince Adam)

"They showed me this painting that they made of me as Prince Adam. It looked like something a fan might have painted of mine when I was 25 years old," Groban says with a laugh. "I was like, 'Oh my God, this is hysterical. I'm going to give this to my mom or something for Christmas.'"

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Joshua Henry and H.E.R. with Rizwan Manji as LeFou

Gaston's selfishness is the antithesis of Belle's kindness. "He's buffoonish and arrogant," notes Henry. "But when you step back and try to think about the bigger, deeper picture, Gaston represents the culture that says If I work hard enough, if I look a certain way, everything will come to me. And I don't think that that is true. I took that on as representing that in all of its sickness. I was like, 'How over the top can I be, yet charming? But overly aggressive. What happens when someone who always gets what they want doesn't get what they want?'"

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Little town, it's a quiet village

H.E.R.'s Belle jumps right off the pages of the sketchbooks used for by original animated film's team.

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Does anyone still wear a hat?

The idea to render the opening number with life-sized versions of the animator's sketches came from executive producer Jon M. Chu. "He first saw the movie as a boy," explains director Hamish Hamilton. "He saw the work-in-progress version, which was submitted to the Academy so that it could be reviewed for an Oscar. So he saw something akin to those sketches, and they were absolutely formative in his life choices of becoming a director."

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Getting animated

"It's crazy to put faces to the people that created this iconic thing," says H.E.R. "I got to meet the original Belle, Paige O'Hara, which was so amazing. It was so surreal hearing her voice and seeing her face talking with her. I love her."

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Fountain framing

Belle sings in front of this fountain in her opening number. "This was a lot different for me than what I'm used to with live concert performances," says H.E.R. of the experience. "It's a whole different sort of preparation and it's a lot more challenging."

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Pigging out

Even when they're background characters, animals are always a memorable part of Disney animation. So much so that H.E.R. says she'd like to voice an animal in a Disney animated film. For Groban's part, he wants to tackle The Hunchback of Notre Dame and its unique score next.

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The library is open

Before venturing out to the Beast's castle to save her father, Belle learns about the world from her beloved books. "The things that she cares about, she really cares about," says H.E.R. "She pays attention and she reads about them. She's always probably dreamt of having a romance, so when it happens, it's like, 'Oh my gosh, this is my moment.' That's what made [the chemistry] easy."

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Bonjour!

"I was most looking forward to the opening song," says H.E.R. "When we got to it, there's so much going on in that scene that you don't get to fully settle into it. You're like, 'Ooh, okay, gotta move over here, gotta move over there.'"

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Home sweet home

Though H.E.R. says seeing these sketches come to life as sets she acts in front of was magical, the experience itself wasn't as easy a waving a wand. "Everything was challenging," she says. "It wasn't necessarily just dancing, it wasn't just singing, just acting. It was doing everything all at once and remembering. Even choreography is not simple because of the arrangements and he different time signatures within the songs. You're having to count things out in your head a little differently than you would a normal piece of choreography."

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Art depreciation

"Disney is what we all treasured as children, so we have to do it justice," says executive producer Katy Mullan. "Even for the most hardened of TV live directors and producers, it was intimidating. But what we've got is something that is really incredible because the cast put their hands on it and every team member did an incredible job."

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A Belle and her beauties

H.E.R. (with gold and red triangle trim on her dress) with the ensemble. "This version shows more of a peek into Belle's mind," says the recording artist. "It's more metaphoric in that scene. It's a combination of getting a peek into her mind, but also celebrating the many Belles that there are and celebrating the Belle in everybody."

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Joshua Henry gets camera ready

Henry describes Gaston as the physical opposite of him in many ways. He had to beef up for the role (after all, he's got biceps to spare) and his hairstyle required four hours in the chair each day to weave the braids into his natural hair. "It's fire," brags Henry. "This Gaston is lit, no joke."

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Winter wonderland

This backdrop is the setting for the earliest flickers of romance between Belle and the Beast as they sing "Something There," which ultimately became H.E.R's favorite number. "That was one of the most romantic and sweet, flirty moments," she says. "I didn't expect to have so much fun with that one. It was a challenging song to sing, and I love challenges."

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A rose is a rose

There's no shortage of things to marvel at the in TV special from the sets to the costumes to the performances. "Every scene had its own blocking that was interesting and complicated, blending both the cinematic and the live universes together, "says Groban. "It was very ambitious and knowing what a huge task everyone had to create this, it's something that fans of this movie deserve in all its glory."