It’s not your average Christmas love story. But here goes: “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.”
That’s how the production company Awkward Productions is introducing its new musical “Gwyneth Goes Skiing,” about Gwyneth Paltrow’s trial over a skiing accident, set to run at the Pleasance Theater in London this December. The show was first announced in October.
Far from a classic West End musical, the show is a comedy featuring original songs by Leland, a singer songwriter who has worked with stars including Selena Gomez. Set in a small venue, the show will be 90 minutes.
The theater promises “a story of love, betrayal, skiing and (somehow) Christmas.” It adds that the audience will be the jury of the trial.
This March, a jury found that Paltrow was not at fault over a crash with another skier on a Utah slope in 2016 after a week of testimony that explored skiing etiquette, medical history and celebrity culture.
The other skier, Terry Sanderson, 76, a retired optometrist, had sued Paltrow for $300,000, accusing her of skiing “out of control” on a beginner’s slope at the Deer Valley Resort in Park City.
Sanderson claimed that her impact caused a traumatic brain injury and four broken ribs, among other serious injuries. Paltrow countersued and denied the claims, saying that Sanderson skied into her back. Jurors found that Sanderson was “100 percent” at fault in the crash. Paltrow was awarded $1, the sum she requested.
Can you just imagine the musical numbers?
Linus Karp, an actor who plays Diana, Princess of Wales, in another comedic musical, will play the role of Paltrow.
At the time of the trial, audiences couldn’t stop watching and making memes of Paltrow’s testimony; the earth-tone, soft knits she wore; the final phrase she whispered to Sanderson (“I wish you well”); and even the notebook she brought to the courtroom. The trial itself generated steady debate among its livestream viewers.
