By John Corrado
In his documentary You Had to Be There – full subtitle How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution, Spread Love & Overalls, and Created a Community That Changed the World (In a Canadian Kind of Way) – filmmaker Nick Davis explores a legendary 1972 Toronto production of the Stephen Schwartz musical Godspell.
The musical itself was the story of Jesus retold through a bunch of hippie clowns in overalls. But this run of the show at the Royal Alexandra Theatre was legendary for one reason; the cast. It included soon-to-be comedy heavyweights Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Dave Thomas, Andrea Martin and Paul Shaffer. It also launched the careers of Canadian actors like Jayne Eastwood and Victor Garber, who played Jesus.
The show was never filmed, with the only version of it that exists being an audio recording that Short covertly made one night. We hear excerpts from it throughout the film, with Davis filling in the gaps and tying everything together through simple animations. The fact that You Had to Be There remains so entertaining, despite essentially a core piece of it being missing, speaks to how engaging the subjects are to listen to. It’s a lot of fun hearing comedy legends like Levy, Short and Martin reminiscing about their roles.
The fact that Davis was able to bring them on board for the film also illustrates how fondly they remember each other and their time together in this show. The film takes us through their post-Godspell careers as well, as many of them moved on to Saturday Night Live and Canadian counterpart SCTV. As a piece of both Toronto musical theatre history and comedy history, You Had to Be There provides high value. It’s a delightful treasure trove and trip down memory lane.
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