Edinburgh hit I Wish You Well – The Gwyneth Paltrow Ski-Trial Musical takes a well-deserved turn at the Criterion Theatre
“The Jeffrey Dahmer glasses, while being sued by an optometrist… inspired”
As pre-show announcements go, I Wish You Well – The Gwyneth Paltrow Ski-Trial Musical has a corker which ends with “Take a deep breath, do you smell that? That’s my vagina”. It’s a fairly clear statement of intent as to how seriously we should be taking the show, as if there were any doubt. I Wish You Well arrives at the Criterion Theatre for a limited run after playing Edinburgh this summer and at just an hour long, it is really quite fun.
Written by Rick Pearson and Roger Dipper and directed by Shiv Rabheru, with a little choreographical intervention from Arlene Phillips, the show riffs on the infamous 2023 trial where retired optometrist Terry Sanderson sued Gwyneth Paltrow after a ski slope collision 3 years earlier. He sued for $300,000, she counter-sued for $1 and the internet being what it is, the trial became a cultural moment, so ripe for parody that this is the second musical about the subject.
As a tight four-hander, it is fluidly staged, full of silly humour that never takes itself at all seriously. The result might be that the score is relatively low-impact, albeit tuneful, but the payoff of fast-paced fun feels worth it. Diana Vickers is hilarious as Gwynnie P, amping up the holier-than-thou vibes, flirting with the audience but hissing at her accuser. She also gets to remind us of her cracking voice which by rights, ought to make her a higher-profile performer.
Marc Antolin’s litigious Terry is also very funny, increasingly out of his depth but also getting to show his own kinky hidden depths; Idriss Kargbo slays as camply extravagant Judge Jude (the similarly named brother of…); and Tori Allen-Martin comes close to stealing the show as opposing counsel Kristin, unable to hide her stanning of Gwynnie P but also a constant fourth-wall breaker as the show’s humour pokes fun at itself as much as its subject.
From the Gwyneth-inspired Mount Rushmore backdrop to making it rain Gwynnie dollars, fashion show dance breaks and any number of up-to-the-minute pop culture references, it’s all just good-natured campy fun and sometimes, that’s just what you want.
