West Philly meets Bucks County in Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Tears’ video
The new single from the Bucks County-born pop star has a video featuring West Philly native Colman Domingo playing a role reminiscent of Tim Curry’s Frank-N-Furter
Bucks County meets West Philly (in drag) in the video for Sabrina Carpenter’s “Tears,” the latest single from her new album, Man’s Best Friend.
In the video, directed by Bardia Zeinali — who also helmed the one for “Please Please Please,” one of two monster hits from Carpenter’s 2024 breakout album Short n’ Sweet — the Quakertown-born pop star wakes up dazed in a field after being knocked unconscious in a car accident that appears to have killed her boyfriend.
She approaches a spooky-looking house where she finds West Philly native and Overbrook High School graduate Colman Domingo, costumed in drag as a character inspired by Frank-N-Furter, the role played by Tim Curry in the 1974 cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Chaos and carnality ensue, with disembodied hands aiding the always risqué Carpenter in stripping down to her underwear and many drag queens camping it up.
The video has no real connection to the lyrics of the song, a highlight of Man’s Best Friend. It’s a Donna Summer homage in which Carpenter sings about how only a man who is practical and polite can bring her ultimate sexual satisfaction.
“Baby, just do the dishes, I’ll give you what you want,” the comedic pop star sings, while adding that “a little communication” from a man who can assemble a chair from Ikea adds up to “my ultimate foreplay.”
“Tears” follows “Manchild” as the second single from Man’s Best Friend, which was produced by Carpenter with Jack Antonoff and Jack Ryan, and features songs written by all three, plus 2025 Grammy-winning songwriter of the year Amy Allen.
Carpenter has no Philly date on her tour schedule but begins a five-night run at Madison Square Garden in New York on Oct. 26.
In an Instagram post, she called Domingo “incomparable, magnetic and fantastic.”
The actor has many projects in the works including Gus Van Sant’s historical crime drama Dead Man’s Wire and a role as Michael Jackson’s father, Joe Jackson, in the upcoming musical biopic Michael. He is also set to star and direct in a Nat King Cole biopic he is cowriting.
Watch the “Tears” video below.