It was pretty natural that—as rumors arriving ahead of the show suggested—Sabrina Carpenter might bring Madonna up on stage with her at Coachella this year for a little communal celebration and tribute. After all, Carpenter’s hyper-successful pop blend of sexuality and self-awareness owes a lot to Madonna’s titanic run in the ’80s and beyond, so why not bring her out for a little “Vogue,” and even (apparently) a light lesson in astrology? (There’s a new moon in Taurus, we’re informed, so try to keep out of trouble. Also, Madonna just announced a new album, Confessions II, and we’re pretty sure any moon is a good moon for corporate synergy.) Our question, though, is whether anybody realized Carpenter was also staging an inadvertent A League Of Their Own reunion with this weekend’s massive music festival set, and, if so, why was that not the focus of the bit?
See, Carpenter had a whole “movies” theme going for her headlining run at Coachella this year, which included bringing Susan Sarandon on stage last weekend to do a monologue where she pretended to be an older Carpenter, reflecting on her career. To bookend that moment, Carpenter repeated the trick this weekend with Geena Davis, revealing the whole thing to be a Thelma And Louise homage. (Although the timing made it more of a Thelma or Louise situation.) But we simply have to ask: If you have two of the top-billed stars of Penny Marshall’s well-loved 1992 baseball comedy A League Of Their Own already showing up on your stage, how does that idea not dominate your mind? Give Lori Petty a call! Maybe reach out to Hanks, see if he wants to get up on stage and talk about typewriters for a minute. This could have been Coachella’s defining A League Of Their Own-themed headlining set, and the opportunity has clearly been squandered.
Anyway, Carpenter instead opted to simply play some of the most popular songs on the planet to a screaming horde of fans while paying tribute to an artist who very clearly inspired her. What a waste!