Gwyneth Paltrow’s legal battle with a ski optician gets a musical treatment.
“Gwyneth Goes Skiing” will premiere in London this December from Awkward Productions, which describes itself as a “harbinger of queer chaos.”
Linus Karp will play Paltrow, while Terry Sanderson, the optician who collided with her on a Utah ski slope in 2016, will be played by Joseph Martin. The show also features an original musical by singer-songwriter Leland (“RuPaul’s Drag Race”).
“Gwyneth Goes Skiing” is based on the trial between Paltrow and Sanderson that took place earlier this year. Sanderson filed a lawsuit against the “Sliding Doors” star after the collision, claiming he suffered a concussion, four broken ribs and a brain injury. He originally demanded $3.1 million in compensation. Paltrow, who said Sanderson was the one who drove into her, counterclaimed for $1 and attorney fees.
The televised two-week trial went viral and saw snippets of Paltrow’s testimony turned into memes, including the moment after the crash when she yelled at Sanderson: “You drove right into my fucking back!”
A jury ultimately ruled in Paltrow’s favor.
“She’s the Hollywood superstar who founded Goop, opens doors, loves Shakespeare and consciously uncouples herself. He is a retired optometrist from Utah. In 2016 they went skiing,” says the logline of “Gwyneth Goes Skiing.” “On the slopes of Deer Valley, their worlds collided, and they did—literally. Ouch. Seven years later, in 2023, they went to court. Double ouch. This is her story. Sort of. Not really. But it’s also Christmas.”
The show at London’s Pleasance Theater, which runs for ten days from December 13, will feature audience members as judges.
It’s not the first celebrity trial to be dramatized in recent years. Last year’s legal battle between British soccer wives Colleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy was the subject of a play, a TV drama and several documentaries, including most recently “Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story” on Disney+.
Karp is currently playing the role of Princess Diana in Awkward Production’s production of Diana: The Untold & Untrue Story, described by the website Broadway Baby as “the craziest piece of theater in existence.”