Gwyneth Goes Skiing review: Awkward Productions leaves us Goop-ed once again
Gwyneth Goes Skiing is still a hilarious and camp experience and "quite unlike anything else you’ll see at the moment!"
We weren’t quite sure that Awkward Productions could top the madness and hilarity of the first time we saw Gwyneth Goes Skiing. But in true queer fashion, they did and had us in stitches all over again.
To recap: the show is a parody musical based on the 2016 skiing accident between Iron Man star Gwyneth Paltrow (Linus Karp) and retired optometrist Dr. Terry Sanderson (Joseph Martin) as well as the pop culture moment that was the 2023 trial that followed.
Once again the show is a hilarious escapade of pop culture references, brain rot humour, and verbatim lines from the 2023 trial. References have been updated too, with new additions including the Charli XCX-Lorde ‘Girl, so confusing’ remix as well as “Show me to me please. Send it to me Rachel.” Awkward Productions, the self-professed “harbingers of queer chaos”, know their audience well and spend just as much time online as them. They are therefore able to adapt their shows as things come and go, exhibiting a brilliant fluidity and openness. It’s a strength that few can do well without feeling forced or inauthentic. One moment where Martin forgot his mark provided extra comedy and they and Karp played it off well, incorporating it into the rest of the scene.
The show has also undergone edits as the creators prepare to take it to the Edinburgh Fringe, where they will be performing it for the entire festival. They’ve kept the best bits including a speech of Gwyneth’s made up entirely of project titles she’s worked on as well as the video appearance from Trixie Mattel as Blythe Danner. New moments include a montage of world events and pop culture moments that happened between 2016 and the 2023 trial as well as Glee star Darren Criss lending his vocal chops as Sanderson’s singing voice (Catherine Cohen provides Gwyneth’s singing voice) Otherwise, it’s the same zany and faultless comedy the Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story creators have made their brand.
The last time Attitude saw Gwyneth Goes Skiing we wrote that it’d be worth returning to see if the show ends any differently alone. Then, the audience decided result was in keeping with the 2023 court case and Paltrow emerged as the victor. However, on Friday (19 July) the audience voted that it was Gwyneth who was to blame for the 2016 accident. What followed was the same closing song, the brilliant ‘I Wish You Well’, but with different lyrics to reflect the verdict. We loved it!
With brilliant performances and delightful comedy Gwyneth Goes Skiing is still a hilarious and camp experience and “quite unlike anything else you’ll see at the moment!” If you’re at the Fringe, we strongly recommend checking this one out!