Hit show with ‘Gwyneth Paltrow’ that’s downhill all the way
Hit show with ‘Gwyneth Paltrow’ that’s downhill all the way
Remember that crazy court case involving a collision on a ski slope between Gwyneth Paltrow, Goop founder and sometime movie star, and retired optometrist Terry Sanderson, from Utah?
It was the stuff of the movies made real and it certainly caught the eye of Linus Karp and Joseph Martin.
This is the couple who, in 2017, founded Awkward Productions, a company specialising in shows they’re proud to call “fun, exciting and very queer”.
An earlier hit was Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story which won awards and was a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Somehow you can see why they would be attracted to this real-life blend of winter sport and courtroom drama with its somewhat unlikely cast.
Read more: Curated Culture 29.10.24 - Our latest what’s on recommendations
Their fascination was duly channelled into Gwyneth Goes Skiing which slithers onto Live Theatre’s stage in Newcastle this month (with hopefully no litigation-worthy bumps along the way).
The show has already had sell-out runs in London and in Park City, Utah, where the real trial took place.
There, apparently, it was seen and enjoyed by members of both Gwyneth’s and Terry’s legal teams, and also witnesses and jurors from the trial itself.
One is said to have described it as “more entertaining than the actual trial” and another as “99.9% accurate”.
That’s quite something since even the show’s creators say it features - along with a sprinkling of verbatim lines from court transcripts and original music by Leland (resident songwriter and producer on RuPaul’s Drag Race) - “a whole lot of fiction”.
In the show, which critics have called “gloriously ridiculous” and “hilariously bonkers”, Linus plays Gwyneth and Joseph is her nemesis, Terry.
The Awkwards, perhaps a little tongue-in-cheek, call it “a story of justice, betrayal and optometry, recounting the biggest case to rock the legal world since law was invented”.
And in their telling, they make the audience the jury, asking them to decided “who’s guilty and who’s gooped”.
If you’re up for taking on that responsibility, you can catch Gwyneth Goes Skiing at Live Theatre from Wednesday, November 13 to Saturday, November 16.
Tickets and information from the theatre website.