You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution...

Name: You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution...
Genre: Documentary, Comedy
Released: 2026-10-02
Duration: 1 h 38 min
Cast: Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Victor Garber

On June 1, 1972, a modest Toronto production of Godspell opened at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. That production quietly detonated into a cultural aftershock that would reshape comedy for decades. What looked like a scrappy, joyful musical retelling of the Book of Matthew became, over its 14-month run, an unlikely creative crucible where an extraordinary group of young performers discovered a new, freewheeling comic language together. Nick Davis’ You Had to Be There revisits this electric moment in time, when an ensemble that included Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, Jayne Eastwood, Victor Garber, and musical director Paul Shaffer helped ignite a sensibility that would soon reverberate through Saturday Night Live, SCTV, and beyond. Through spirited interviews, playful reconstructions, and rare archival fragments, the film captures not just the origin story of a comedy revolution, but the exuberant, messy, deeply formative experience of a group of artists who had no idea they were making history, only that they were having the time of their lives. Also featuring Catherine O’Hara, John Candy, Mike Myers, Dan Akroyd, and Lin-Manuel MirandaDocumentary, ComedyPT1H38M2026-10-02CAen

Martin Short

Eugene Levy

Victor Garber

Nick Davis

Jane Mendelsohn

Kinder Labatt

Nick Davis

Bonnie Comley

Josh Church

Stewart F. Lane

Sue Turley

Zachary Hausman

Tom Powers

Jan Gura

You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution..."You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution..."

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