The live event will air Thursday night on ABC and feature award-winning musician H.E.R. as Belle, Josh Groban as The Beast, Shania Twain as Mrs. Potts, Martin Short as Lumiere and David Alan Grier as Cogsworth. Leo Abelo Perry, Jon Jon Briones, Rizwan Manji, and Joshua Henry will also star on the show with Rita Moreno as the narrator.
Ahead of the show, Twain shared a few photos of herself in costume as Mrs. Potts on Instagram, as well as behind the scenes videos of her walking around set.
Christopher Willard/ABC Television
In the photos, which also show Martin Short dressed as Lumiere, Twain wears an ornate costume with gold details on the bodice and teapot-shaped skirt, and pops of purple on her hat and skirt.
“Being a part of #BeautyAndTheBeast30th was truly a magical experience,” Twain wrote in the caption. “Also I can now tick ‘dress as a teapot for three weeks’ off of my bucket list.”
“The whole cast are wonderful and it was an honour to work alongside them,” Twain added. “So much talent. I can’t wait to hear what you think of it!!”
Christopher Willard/ABC Television
The costumes in the upcoming production were designed by Emmy Award-winning costume designer Marina Toybina. In an interview with “Good Morning America,” Toybina said she spent a year researching costumes for the entire show and three months to get the costumes done.
“I had great direction from Jon M. Chu, who I admire and love,” she said. “One of the most important things that we wanted to do was bring new life into this adaptation. After doing tons of research, renderings of illustration, we were able to really find this perfect place where the costumes could live.”
One of the ways Toybina put a modern twist on the costumes for the live show is with Belle’s outfit in the opening sequence, when we first see H.E.R. dressed in the princess’ iconic blue dress and apron. On Belle’s apron, Toybina included Baybayin script, a subtle nod to H.E.R.’s Filipino heritage.
According to author and professor Kevin Nadal, Ph.D., Baybayin is a script that existed prior to the Spanish colonization of the Philippines.
“I shared the sketches with H.E.R. of what Belle was gonna look like and we instantaneously had the same comment,” Toybina said. “One day, she called me and she was like, is there a way to incorporate a respect for the culture, a respect to my heritage, and we were talking about small things. And the more I thought about the idea, if we’re gonna do this, let’s really be representative. Let’s really be bold.”
Toybina said that she contacted a friend who is of Filipino descent and worked with him to include Baybayin script, which Nadal said spells out “Bel.”
Christopher Willard/ABC Television
“It’s really cool to bring that back and to show people our culture and our history,” H.E.R. told “GMA.” “I definitely wanted to add a little Filipino flavor to my costume so it’s cool that we did that.”
“Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration” premieres Thursday, Dec. 15, on ABC at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. It will be available on Disney+ and Hulu the next day.
ABC News’ Abigail Shalawylo contributed to this report.
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