Nick Davis’ You Had to Be There revisits the 1972-73 Toronto production of Godspell and how the musical comedy ignited a comedy revolution in Canada and beyond. The film’s full title is long but pretty appropriate given its subject: You Had to Be There: 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).

When you’re a comedy nerd, it’s inevitable you’ll hear about Toronto’s Godspell at some point. I’m not sure exactly when I first did—probably when I read Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller’s Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live years ago. It was only a matter of time before a documentary emerged, though the biggest challenge is that you had to be there: no video exists of the original production. Talk about having FOMO!

To give you an idea of where I’m coming from, I first saw The Second City Touring Company during my college’s Welcome Week. That experience inspired me to move to Chicago after graduation to study the art of improv and sketch comedy. Life eventually pulled me in a different direction, and I somehow wound up as a film critic. Still, my background in improv and sketch is why I gravitate so strongly toward films about comedy—including You Had to Be There.

It’s hard to imagine today, but in 1972 Toronto, a production of Godspell gathered an all-star roster before anyone knew their names: Martin Short, Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, and Victor Garber, et al, with Paul Shaffer behind the piano. That unlikely mix of talent didn’t just stage a musical—it set off the comedy explosion that would ripple through SNL, SCTV, movies, TV, and eventually into Schitt’s Creek and Only Murders in the Building.

You Had to Be There mixes fresh interviews with surviving cast members and admirers alongside rare archival gems: rehearsal clips, Short’s illegally recorded audio from the production, and his intimate recordings of after-hours gatherings at his and Eugene’s 1063 Avenue Road apartment. Together, they capture the joy and creative spark of a moment that transformed comedy forever.

To give some context, there wasn’t much of a cross-border comedy ecosystem in the early ’70s. Dan Aykroyd and Gilda Radner (a Detroit native who had moved to Toronto) hadn’t yet broken into America’s scene. In fact, Gilda became the first actress hired for SNL precisely because Lorne Michaels had seen her on stage in Godspell. Meanwhile, The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour—with Aykroyd, Victor Garber, and Andrea Martin among its cast—actually predated both Godspell and SNL. Inevitably, a wave of Canadian comedians would soon cross the border.

Not everyone from the Toronto cast found lasting fame. You Had to Be There gives Avril Chown—a performer I hadn’t heard of before—a chance to reflect on her post-Godspell years. Paul Shaffer accompanied her audition, a moment that helped launch his own path to SNL and The Late Show with David Letterman. For Chown, though, the trajectory was harsher: she faced abuse while working on The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show, and in the pre-#MeToo era her career never fully recovered. After the 1970s, her only IMDb credits are this documentary and a Gilda Radner tribute.

As one understands it from watching You Had to Be There, John-Michael Tebelak and Stephen Schwartz’s Godspell was actually a radical interpretation. Given the cast’s costuming, it’s easy to see why people might have dismissed it as a hippie production, but that couldn’t be further from the case. True, it was very much a product of its time, yet the film makes clear how its approach stood apart.

One of the delights here is a clip of John Candy reflecting on the show, which he famously disliked. I had just watched the Candy documentary a few days earlier and even misremembered whether or not he’d been in Godspell. He wasn’t, of course, though his later work at Second City Toronto and SCTV secured his place in comedy history. In that sense, You Had to Be There doubles nicely as a companion piece to John Candy: I Like Me.

It’s worth noting that without Martin Short’s memoir, this documentary might never have happened. Director Nick Davis credits Short’s recollections—particularly his memories of dating Gilda Radner during the show—as the spark that set things in motion. The result is a film that preserves a singular moment in comedy history while celebrating the friendships and creative energy that grew out of it. For comedy nerds, You Had to Be There: 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) isn’t just a clever title—it’s a promise the documentary delivers on.

DIRECTOR: Nick Davis
SCREENWRITERS: Nick Davis and Jane Mendelsohn
CAST: Valda Aviks, Avril Chown, Jayne Eastwood, Victor Garber, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Don Scardino, Paul Shaffer, Martin Short, Stephen Schwartz, Dave Thomas, Rudy Webb, Dan Aykroyd, Janeane Garofalo, Heidi Gardner, Gary Gulman, James Austin Johnson, Kliph Nesteroff, Mike Myers, Lin-Manuel Miranda

You Had to Be There: 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) holds its world premiere during the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival in the Special Presentations program. Grade: 5/5

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