With the holiday season in full swing, having a Netflix subscription never disappoints, because of all the Christmas movies on the streaming platform. However, this year we got something extra short ‘n sweet with A Nonsense Christmas With Sabrina Carpenter. In a year where the pop star has even topped herself on the music charts, it especially warmed our hearts to see Carpenter team up with this year's other break-out pop star, Chappell Roan, for a jaw-dropping rendition of “Last Christmas.”
How did these two end up in fur coats singing karaoke to an old TV? CinemaBlend spoke to the special’s production designer, Jason Sherwood, about how the “Last Christmas” moment came together, and some iconic choices were obviously made. As Sherwood shared:
When Chappell was confirmed and we found out that the song was gonna be ‘Last Christmas’, there was a conversation where they wanted to present the song in a sort of more informal way. We had that huge staircase that we used for the finale. And originally before we knew the song or we knew sort of what they were interested in, we were like, ‘Oh, well, you know, it's the duet everyone's waiting for, we should do it on the big staircase.’
Originally, Sabrina and Chappell’s duet was going to happen in a completely different way. Two of the biggest pop stars of 2024 were going to come together on the massive tiered stage, which took the production crew around two weeks to construct and was ultimately used for the opening and closing numbers. However, when the pair came together, they decided they wanted to deliver a more intimate rendition of George Michael’s classic Christmas song. As Sherwood continued:
And then [Sabrina and Chappell] were like, ‘Well, we kind of wanted to do something more casual, something a little more informal where we can sort of have some fun and play and just sort of be in a spot together as friends’. And there was this idea about them doing karaoke. And so we came back with, what if we took the house set that we'll have seen in other moments that's so pristine and so decked up for the holidays and we trashed it, and made it look like you'd had a big holiday party or a house party?
Sherwood, who previously did the production design for the 2020 Oscars, RENT Live, and shows for the Spice Girls, Sara Bareilles and Sam Smith, was approached for A Nonsense Christmas just ahead of Carpenter’s Grammy-nominated album and viral world tour taking flight. So, he had the experience needed to make this change and make it super effective.
After the production team was asked to pivot from the original plan, the moment between Sabrina and Chappell only got sweeter. It took place in the Friends-inspired living room Sherwood designed for the special, but in a new context just for the song. In the production designer’s words:
It has like a little Euphoria, a little '80s prom. It's got like that very sort of suburban Americana feel – solo cups on the floor. And they were like, ‘Oh yeah, and we're gonna come down the stairs in these glammed-out '80s dresses and do karaoke’. We made a sort of eight-bit lyric video of the song and ran it on the old retro TV. We got them corded microphones, and as we were making it, we were all like, ‘Oh, I hope people love this’. Because we loved it.
Certainly, these two could have slayed a power ballad, but there’s something cozy and memorable about the pair singing karaoke together against a more moody version of the set about lost love. We already knew that Carpenter can rock fur and that Chappell Roan loves a reference in her fashion, but this pivot really illustrates nostalgia and camaraderie between the two chart-toppers. Sherwood also said this:
We thought it was such a fun moment in the show, and really sort of spoke to their personalities and also their dynamic. We did a handful of takes and each time was just sort of them improvising and having a good time together. And it was really fun to make. I think it's probably my favorite number in the special.
A Nonsense Christmas With Sabrina Carpenter was shot over three days during the summer, with tons of other incredible musical guests like Shania Twain, Tyla, Kali Uchis along with Cara Delevingne, Jillian Bell, Megan Stalter, Nico Hiraga, Quinta Brunson and Kyle Mooney being part of the sketch segments. You can appreciate all the production design work Sherwood did on the special on Netflix right now.
