The Park City trial in which actress/entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow and a retired Utah eye doctor fought it out over a skiing accident is taking to the stage.
As a musical. In England.
“Gwyneth Goes Skiing” — from a team that describes themselves as the “harbingers of queer chaos” — is set to debut in London next month.
“She’s the Goop-founding, Door-Sliding, Shakespeare-In-Loving, consciously-uncoupling Hollywood superstar. He’s a retired optometrist from Utah. In 2016, they went skiing,” according to a logline from Awkward Productions. “On the slopes of Deer Valley, their worlds collided, and so did they – literally. Ouch. Seven years later in 2023, they went to court. Double ouch. This is their story. Kind of. Not really. But also, it’s at Christmas.”
Linus Karp is slated to star as Paltrow. Joseph Martin is scheduled to co-star as retired optometrist Terry Sanderson. The musical will include original songs by Leland, the one-named musician who’s known as the resident singer-songwriter for “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
“Gwyenth Goes Skiing” is scheduled to begin a 10-day run on Dec. 13 at London’s Pleasance Theatre. It is “a story of love, betrayal, skiing, and (somehow) Christmas — where you are the jury!”
That’s right. Audience members — who must be at least 16 years old to attend — won’t just watch, but will participate as members of the jury. Awkward Productions also issued this warning: “This show contains strong language, adult humour and exploding vagina candles (maybe).”
Paltrow and Sanderson collided on the slopes at Deer Valley in 2016. She said he hit her; he said she hit and seriously injured him. In 2019, he sued her for $3.1 million. After his initial complaint was dismissed, Sanderson’s lawyers refiled, asking for “more than $300,000.”
The two-week trial in March became an online sensation, and ended in victory for Paltrow. The jury awarded her the “symbolic” $1 that she asked for in her countersuit.