Gwyneth Paltrow’s Ski Trial as a Gonzo Musical

“You know what you’re getting into when you come to one of our shows,” offers Joseph Martin, one half of queer British theater duo Awkward Productions. “But you’re still going to leave thinking: ‘I’ve never seen anything like that. What the hell was that?!’”

We’re talking about Gwyneth Goes Skiing, the new musical play about one of the bizarre moments of 2023: The Gwyneth Paltrow Ski Trial. In March, Paltrow found herself facing off with retired optometrist Terry Sanderson in a Utah courtroom. Sanderson initially sued Paltrow for $3 million, before this was lowered to $300,000. Why? He alleged that, in a collision in Feb. 2016, Paltrow skied into him and gave him a serious brain injury. She claimed the collision was his fault and countersued for $1, plus her legal fees.

The trial became a surprise social media phenomenon. There was a snowstorm of bizarre moments, from Paltrow being quizzed on everything from her relationship with Taylor Swift to her height. While on the witness stand, she described how she had been inconvenienced by Sanderson, uttering eight words that changed pop culture forever: “Well, I lost half a day of skiing.” 

Fast-forward nine months, and the stage show — described as a “play with music,” rather than a full-blown musical — is enjoying an (almost!) sold-out run through February at the Pleasance Theatre in London, U.K. It was Linus Karp, the other half of Awkward Productions, who first noticed that the trial could be turned into a stage show. “It was just giving us gem after gem,” he says. “Then, when Gwyneth won and whispered ‘I wish you well’ to Terry, I knew we had to make it into a show.”

It’s hardly surprising that courtrooms make fertile ground for stage and screen adaptations. From judges in wigs, to lawyers putting on a show to win over the jury (and the court of public opinion), there is something naturally theatrical about these spaces. In this case, the seriousness of the Utah courtroom is juxtaposed with the ridiculousness of the ski trial itself, with a Hollywood star and wellness guru strutting in and out of the courtroom in looks that cost more than the average person’s rent. 

In the show, Karp takes on the leading role of Paltrow, while Martin plays the disgruntled optometrist — which should never be confused with optician, by the way — Sanderson. The script is meticulously researched and features references to even the most obscure Paltrow lore, from her strangest quotes to her films, social media posts, bizarre Goop products, her marriage to Chris (“the color beige personified”) Martin, and her alleged diet secrets. 

Karp has long been a fan of Paltrow. “Anyone who makes a candle that smells like their vagina is a gay icon,” he says. But his meticulously studying in advance of the show has given him a new reverence for her: “I think we both became bigger Gwyneth fans because she’s just so self-aware. She never faltered and she was so grounded.”

There is a society-wide temptation to portray Paltrow as a ridiculous figure — and her more, shall we say, “out there” moments are definitely mocked in the show. But the pair also think she is forward-thinking. “She takes a lot of flak for, you know, these ridiculous new trends,” Martin says. “But then a lot of those trends tend to reappear in the wellness community a few years down the line, and suddenly everyone’s like, ‘Yes, that’s absolutely right.’” 

Even things like “consciously uncoupling,” which were once derided, have now become mainstream aspirational goals for couples going their separate ways. “I heard that term and thought, ‘What the hell does this mean? This is ridiculous!’” Martin says. “But actually, I really buy into it now. Divorce is such a loaded term, particularly if you don’t feel that applies to you.”

I think if you go expecting a musical, you won’t leave disappointed, and if you go expecting a play with music, you won’t be disappointed. We want to combine as many forms as possible to make our own weird, chaotic version of the trial.

The show features original music by Leland (RuPaul’s Drag Race, Troye Sivan’s Something to Give Each Other). The duo met him at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and they immediately hit it off. He told them that, if they ever needed a song for a project, they should get in touch. When they floated the idea of a stage play about the ski trial, Leland said he had already been thinking about doing something similar. In fact, the topic had been floated as a potential “Rusical” on RuPaul’s Drag Race, but there weren’t enough parts for the contestants. A collaboration was born.

Gwyneth Goes Skiing feels similar to the “Rusicals” that we see on Drag Race in that it’s unpolished and often completely ridiculous. (At several points, Paltrow talks to her “daughter” Apple — a plastic apple held up with string.) It’s an acid trip that exists somewhere between drag and pantomime — a British theater tradition that often incorporates music, audience participation, and slapstick humor. “I think if you go expecting a musical, you won’t leave disappointed, and if you go expecting a play with music, you won’t be disappointed,” Martin says. “We want to combine as many forms as possible to make our own weird, chaotic version of the trial.” 

Karp astutely described their work as children’s theater, but for adults. “It’s not child-friendly,” he laughs. “But it very much has the same elements: Over-the-top characters, audience participation, breaking the fourth wall, puppetry, music, and dance.”

At the end of the show, the audience is asked to vote for who they think is the innocent party. When I was there, the theatergoers reached the same conclusion as the jury in Utah: Paltrow was vindicated. This was partly because of details the duo included which didn’t go viral at the time, but were important: Facebook posts from Sanderson that showed him traveling the world at the same time he claimed to have been seriously hampered by a brain injury. And, like the real-life trial, the main draw here is Paltrow herself. “She’s absolutely self-aware and knows how to have fun with it,” Martin says. “She knows what she’s doing.”

“You know what you’re getting into when you come to one of our shows,” offers Joseph Martin, one half of queer British theater duo Awkward Productions. “But you’re still going to leave thinking: ‘I’ve never seen anything like that. What the hell was that?!’”

We’re talking about Gwyneth Goes Skiing, the new musical play about one of the bizarre moments of 2023: The Gwyneth Paltrow Ski Trial. In March, Paltrow found herself facing off with retired optometrist Terry Sanderson in a Utah courtroom. Sanderson initially sued Paltrow for $3 million, before this was lowered to $300,000. Why? He alleged that, in a collision in Feb. 2016, Paltrow skied into him and gave him a serious brain injury. She claimed the collision was his fault and countersued for $1, plus her legal fees.

The trial became a surprise social media phenomenon. There was a snowstorm of bizarre moments, from Paltrow being quizzed on everything from her relationship with Taylor Swift to her height. While on the witness stand, she described how she had been inconvenienced by Sanderson, uttering eight words that changed pop culture forever: “Well, I lost half a day of skiing.” 

Fast-forward nine months, and the stage show — described as a “play with music,” rather than a full-blown musical — is enjoying an (almost!) sold-out run through February at the Pleasance Theatre in London, U.K. It was Linus Karp, the other half of Awkward Productions, who first noticed that the trial could be turned into a stage show. “It was just giving us gem after gem,” he says. “Then, when Gwyneth won and whispered ‘I wish you well’ to Terry, I knew we had to make it into a show.”

It’s hardly surprising that courtrooms make fertile ground for stage and screen adaptations. From judges in wigs, to lawyers putting on a show to win over the jury (and the court of public opinion), there is something naturally theatrical about these spaces. In this case, the seriousness of the Utah courtroom is juxtaposed with the ridiculousness of the ski trial itself, with a Hollywood star and wellness guru strutting in and out of the courtroom in looks that cost more than the average person’s rent. 

In the show, Karp takes on the leading role of Paltrow, while Martin plays the disgruntled optometrist — which should never be confused with optician, by the way — Sanderson. The script is meticulously researched and features references to even the most obscure Paltrow lore, from her strangest quotes to her films, social media posts, bizarre Goop products, her marriage to Chris (“the color beige personified”) Martin, and her alleged diet secrets. 

Karp has long been a fan of Paltrow. “Anyone who makes a candle that smells like their vagina is a gay icon,” he says. But his meticulously studying in advance of the show has given him a new reverence for her: “I think we both became bigger Gwyneth fans because she’s just so self-aware. She never faltered and she was so grounded.”

There is a society-wide temptation to portray Paltrow as a ridiculous figure — and her more, shall we say, “out there” moments are definitely mocked in the show. But the pair also think she is forward-thinking. “She takes a lot of flak for, you know, these ridiculous new trends,” Martin says. “But then a lot of those trends tend to reappear in the wellness community a few years down the line, and suddenly everyone’s like, ‘Yes, that’s absolutely right.’” 

Even things like “consciously uncoupling,” which were once derided, have now become mainstream aspirational goals for couples going their separate ways. “I heard that term and thought, ‘What the hell does this mean? This is ridiculous!’” Martin says. “But actually, I really buy into it now. Divorce is such a loaded term, particularly if you don’t feel that applies to you.”

I think if you go expecting a musical, you won’t leave disappointed, and if you go expecting a play with music, you won’t be disappointed. We want to combine as many forms as possible to make our own weird, chaotic version of the trial.

The show features original music by Leland (RuPaul’s Drag Race, Troye Sivan’s Something to Give Each Other). The duo met him at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and they immediately hit it off. He told them that, if they ever needed a song for a project, they should get in touch. When they floated the idea of a stage play about the ski trial, Leland said he had already been thinking about doing something similar. In fact, the topic had been floated as a potential “Rusical” on RuPaul’s Drag Race, but there weren’t enough parts for the contestants. A collaboration was born.

Gwyneth Goes Skiing feels similar to the “Rusicals” that we see on Drag Race in that it’s unpolished and often completely ridiculous. (At several points, Paltrow talks to her “daughter” Apple — a plastic apple held up with string.) It’s an acid trip that exists somewhere between drag and pantomime — a British theater tradition that often incorporates music, audience participation, and slapstick humor. “I think if you go expecting a musical, you won’t leave disappointed, and if you go expecting a play with music, you won’t be disappointed,” Martin says. “We want to combine as many forms as possible to make our own weird, chaotic version of the trial.” 

Karp astutely described their work as children’s theater, but for adults. “It’s not child-friendly,” he laughs. “But it very much has the same elements: Over-the-top characters, audience participation, breaking the fourth wall, puppetry, music, and dance.”

At the end of the show, the audience is asked to vote for who they think is the innocent party. When I was there, the theatergoers reached the same conclusion as the jury in Utah: Paltrow was vindicated. This was partly because of details the duo included which didn’t go viral at the time, but were important: Facebook posts from Sanderson that showed him traveling the world at the same time he claimed to have been seriously hampered by a brain injury. And, like the real-life trial, the main draw here is Paltrow herself. “She’s absolutely self-aware and knows how to have fun with it,” Martin says. “She knows what she’s doing.”