Gwyneth Paltrow’s unforgettable ski crash trial is getting the musical treatment.
Gwyneth Goes Skiing, a parody show inspired by the trial, will open at the U.K.’s Pleasance London Main House Cabaret on December 13 and run through December 23. Created by British theater group Awkward Productions, actors Linus Karp and Joseph Martin will star as Paltrow, 51, and optometrist Terry Sanderson, respectively.
“She’s the Goop-founding, Shakespeare-In-Loving, consciously-uncoupling Hollywood superstar. He’s a retired Optometrist from Utah. In 2016, they went skiing,” reads a description of the musical shared via Instagram. “On the slopes of Deer Valley, their worlds collided and so did they — literally. Ouch. In 2023, they went to court. Double ouch.”
The show’s official poster features Karp as Paltrow dressed in winter attire and holding a candle that reads, “This smells like a lawsuit,” poking fun at Paltrow’s infamous “This Smells Like My Vagina” Goop candle. Martin’s Sanderson, meanwhile, stands in the background with a black eye and crooked glasses.
Gwyneth Goes Skiing is not the only project based on the trial in the works. Warner Bros. Discovery UK & Ireland announced in July that the case would be turned into a docuseries titled Gwyneth vs Terry: The Ski Crash Trial.
Sanderson, 76, sued Paltrow in January 2019 for allegedly crashing into him while skiing in Deer Valley, Utah, three years prior. In court docs obtained by Us Weekly at the time, Sanderson claimed that he suffered “a brain injury, four broken ribs and other serious injuries” after Paltrow lost control on the slopes and hit him in the back. He asked for more than $3 million in damages.
Sanderson also claimed that Paltrow’s ski instructor “failed to send help” after the incident and “filed a false report to protect his client.” Paltrow, for her part, responded to the accusations in a statement to Us, noting, “This lawsuit is completely without merit and we expect to be vindicated.” She filed a countersuit in February 2019, claiming that she sustained a “full body blow” after Sanderson “plowed into her back.”
The case went to trial earlier this year after a judge lowered Sanderson’s damages request to $300,000. The week-long trial made headlines in March, from Paltrow’s courtroom style to lawyers questioning her friendship with Taylor Swift.
While testifying on the third day of the trial, Paltrow claimed that she initially thought the crash was a sexual assault. “I was skiing and two skis came between my skis forcing my legs apart and then there was a body pressing against me and there was a very strange grunting noise so my brain was trying to make sense of what was happening,” she said. “I thought, ‘Is this a practical joke? Is someone doing something perverted? This is really, really strange.’ My mind was going very quickly and I was trying to ascertain what was happening.”
While Sanderson’s daughter, Shae, testified in favor of her father on March 24, Paltrow’s daughter Apple, 19, and son Moses, 17, vocalized their support for their mother. Moses, for his part, stated in his deposition that he “briefly” witnessed “the collision” while skiing with Paltrow’s instructor. Apple claimed that she had “never seen my mom shaken up like that and she was very clearly visibly upset and she had some sort of pain.” (Paltrow shares her children with ex-husband Chris Martin.)
Paltrow ultimately won the case on March 30 after the jury found her not liable. She received $1 in damages. According to Extra, Paltrow told Sanderson, “I wish you well,” before exiting the courtroom, to which he replied, “Thank you, dear.”
Last month, Paltrow reflected on the “weird” legal drama, telling The New York Times that she wanted to move forward. “I don’t know that I’ve even processed it. It was something I felt like I survived,” she said. “Sometimes in my life it takes me a long time to look back and process something and understand something.”
