They call it a dumb idea more than once in You Had to Be There, but making a documentary about the 1972 Toronto production of Godspell inevitably strikes comedy gold.
Get your first look at the trailer for this rollicking documentary about a landmark production in the history of Canadian comedy. 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) tells how lightning struck when a generation of Canadian comedic icons, minus John Candy, happened to be in the same production at the same time. It’s all history and laughs from there.
Godspell ’72 participants including Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Jayne Eastwood, Andrea Martin, Victor Garber, Paul Shaffer, Dave Thomas, Avril Chown, and Rudy Webb for an essential portrait of pop culture lore. Directed by Nick Davis, the film creates an oral history of the Godspell production and of a formative movement that helped rouse Toronto from its slumber. But the array of voices also come together for a distinctly Canadian affair as the participants reflect upon why some talents from the same play ride the wave of success to Hollywood, why some stay and build the local scene, and why others take different paths.
Interviewees including Stephen Schwartz, Janeane Garofalo, Mike Myers, and Lin-Manuel Miranda add further context to the production’s impact and legacy. Moreover, with stories of the Godspell ’72 play peppering recent docs like John Candy: I Like Me and Marty: Life Is Short, the film gives the fullest story of a generation of talent getting its flowers. And with interviewees like these, You Had to Be There is also just a whole lot of fun!
“The good vibes and company give everyone in the cast credit for collective greatness,” I wrote while reviewing You Had to Be There at TIFF last fall. “Without any of these performers adding to the secret sauce of Godspell ’72, one can only imagine how comedy might have shaped up in the years that followed from Saturday Night Live to SCTV to Schitt’s Creek. The documentary offers a hugely entertaining record of Canadian cultural history worthy of time and celebration. And, in perhaps the most Canadian trait ever, it’s an American production.” Read more about the film in our interviews with Davis and Garber/Shaffer.
You Had to Be There begins its theatrical run in New York on September 18 with a rollout across subsequent cities and home video platforms to follow.
