In March 2023, the world (or at least, my corner of the internet) was gooped and gagged as we watched the trial brought by retired optometrist Dr Terry Sanderson against actor and wellness tycoon Gwyneth Paltrow following a ski accident in Utah’s Deer Valley.
Sanderson alleged that the collision was caused by the Goop founder’s ‘out of control’ skiing, leaving him with a brain injury, four broken ribs and other serious injuries. In the two weeks it took for Paltrow to prove her Gwyn-occence, we were treated to quite the spectacle, from the actor’s quiet luxury courtroom looks (many of which were shoppable on Goop.com, naturally) to the bizarrely fawning questions posed to Paltrow by Sanderson’s lawyer (a role played by a puppet in this eccentric dramatisation, to great comic effect). Unsurprisingly, Paltrow got the last word: as she breezed out of the courtroom, she paused just long enough to whisper a now iconic line to the defeated Sanderson: ‘I wish you well.’ Well, the purveyor of jade yoni eggs could hardly tell him to do one, could she?
Gwyneth Goes Skiing, from Awkward Productions, is written and directed by Linus Karp and Joseph Martin who previously had a fringe hit with Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story. The show tells the story of both the crash and the trial, with Karp playing Paltrow and Martin playing Sanderson. Karp is excellent as Gwyneth, capturing her otherworldly poise even while firing a barrage of jokes and pop culture references at the audience, in a performance which overshadows Martin’s Sanderson at times. In the second half, however, Martin’s hilarious performance as puppeteer and voice of Sanderson’s lawyer brings back some balance, and scenes between Paltrow and the puppet are clear highlights of the show.
In case it wasn’t abundantly clear, this show is camp as Christmas. There’s a video appearance from RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Trixie Mattel as Gwyneth’s mother; there are songs written by Leland (who has songwriting credits on tracks for Troye Sivan, Cher and RuPaul’s Drag Race) and sung by Glee’s Darren Criss and comedian Cat Cohen (to which the two on-stage performers lip-sync); and Paltrow’s daughter, Apple, is played by an apple – because of course she is.
With a pleasingly DIY, drag-adjacent aesthetic, the show wears its low budget on its sleeve, leading to some good visual jokes (the Deer of Deer Valley character is ‘played’ by a cardboard cutout deer, rolled on stage by a performatively bored stage manager). The small cast gets help from audience members who are pulled on stage to play some of the minor roles, reading their lines off autocue screens. Karp excels in the interactions between audience and performer, riffing comfortably whilst maintaining a distinctly Gwyneth-esque grace.
That being said, the 90-minute-runtime stretches goodwill towards a fun but emotionally thin show. The first half is heavy on exposition (perhaps necessarily, given the niche subject matter) and I found myself wishing we could get to the good stuff sooner.
While the jokes are mostly successful, it sometimes feels that quantity was prioritised over quality, further bloating the performance. I struggled particularly with gags referencing the most recent pop culture moments (the meme factory that is the Wicked press tour was alluded to more than once), which felt like a clunky grab at relevancy. This instinct is understandable given that countless memeable moments have taken place since the show debuted in December 2023, but I wish the team had given the existing material more room to breathe, rather than padding it with less well-crafted jokes.
Despite all this, I found myself beaming and clapping along to the standout final number, which saw all of the performance’s best qualities – campiness, joy, wit and weirdness – come roaring back to the fore and had many audience members on their feet.
It’s not perfect, and it won’t be for everybody, but Gwyneth Goes Skiing is a gutsy good time that holds up an ergonomic Goop LED mirror (I’ll leave you to imagine what that’s for) to our brain rot internet culture, reflecting all the absurdity and fun back at us.