Sabrina Carpenter wrapped her Short n’ Sweet tour in Los Angeles on November 23, 2025, and I was lucky enough to snag last-minute tickets to her closing show. What I expected to be a fun pop concert turned out to be a fully realized theatrical production, and I couldn’t be more impressed.
Short n’ Sweet marks Carpenter’s first-ever arena tour, following a massive year of internet virality. From her unique sense of humor and nightly fan-favorite moments like the rotating “Juno” positions, the ever-changing Nonsense outros, and iconic glitter bodysuit reveals, Carpenter has dominated TikTok timelines. Add in multiple songs becoming trending audios, such as “When did you get hot?”, it’s no surprise that Carpenter cemented herself as one of today’s biggest pop stars.
I became a fan quite recently, after listening to her most recent albums, Short n’ Sweet and Man’s Best Friend, and watching what felt like endless clips from the tour online. I went into the show thinking I’d already seen most of it and wondering if seeing it live would feel much different. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
As a longtime theatre kid, what impressed me most wasn’t just Carpenter’s powerful live vocals or her high-energy dancers, but the meticulous production design and storytelling embedded into every moment of the show. Short n’ Sweet felt like a Broadway production starring Sabrina Carpenter as herself.
First, hidden cameras were embedded throughout the set, popping up unexpectedly during different songs to capture intimate, up-close angles of Carpenter’s performance. These shots reinvented the typical arena camera setup and enhanced the show’s slumber-party, bedroom-pop vibe, especially for audience members seated farther back. It made an arena of thousands of people personal and intimate.
The stage itself was a theatrical playground, and no inch went unused. The set featured multiple rooms, including an upstairs bathroom, a dreamy closet, a bedroom, a cozy living room with a fireplace, a heart-shaped conversation pit, and a curved balcony and bridge, all evoking a Barbie-esque dream house. The design leaned into Carpenter’s recurring jokes about representing the five-foot girlies, positioning her like a modern doll navigating her own oversized world. Some rooms were hidden behind curtains or stage scrims, later revealed mid-show for dramatic effect. This included my favorite moment where Carpenter’s reflection appeared in the bathroom mirror through cleverly concealed screens and projected throughout the arena.
Costuming and set design was equally impressive, drawing heavily from mid-century modern aesthetics, blending iconic eras of women’s fashion from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s with reinvented silhouettes. The result was a cohesive visual identity that felt nostalgic and fresh at the same time — a strong extension of Carpenter’s brand.
What truly sealed the experience was the pacing of the show. Songs lived in parts of the set that matched the message and mood of the track. Intimate lyrics unfolded inside enclosed rooms, while upbeat, high-energy numbers spilled out onto the larger stage and into the catwalk. The set itself became part of the choreography, reinforcing mood shifts and emotional beats in a way that felt impressively intentional and immersive.
Lastly, there wasn’t a moment of concert time that allowed the audience to be taken out of Carpenter’s dream pop world. Multiple vintage-inspired theatrical interludes featuring Carpenter were played in between set and costume changes, making transitions seamless. Videos, sticking with the 1950s aesthetic, featured a morning routine in a bubble bath, commercial breaks, fictional advertisements, and comical “technical difficulties” with a narrator who Carpenter eventually “fires” in the skit.
Simply put, Short n’ Sweet is a theatre kid’s dream production. Sabrina Carpenter successfully built a world, invited the audience inside, and trusted the production to tell the story alongside her. I left the arena already planning to rewatch every single video I took and wishing I could geek out over it with my fellow theatre-loving friends.