STILL OF THE TORONTO GODSPELL
A sudrprising core of talent concentrated. in one long-ago show
The whole title, showing a perhaps Canadian whimsicality, is 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).
So that gives away the film. A review of offbeat but significant show business history and the personalities involved, it concerns a 1972 Toronto production of the Christian-themed musical comedy Godspell that purely by chance, apparently, brought together a remarkable collection of talent, people who were to influence and contribute creatively to music, drama, and other things up until now. Many went ot to SC/TV, the Canadian SEcond City comedy show, and branched out from there. SC/TV was structured as the broadcast schedule of a fictional, low-budget television station located in the equally fictional town of Melonville. Its sketches brilliantly parody mainstream television programs, commercials, movies, and news broadcasts
Participants in the seminal Godspell and SC/TV included Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner (the brilliant Saturday Night Live talent who sadly died of ovarian cencer at 42), Andrea Martin,Dave Thomas, Victor Garber (who starred as Jesus), Paul Shaffer (who served as the show's musical director, and was to be the "David Letterman Show" band leader for 33 years) , and Jayne Eastwood. Snatches of archival footage and stills are freely used throughout. Talking heads include Mike Myers, and in archival footage Catherine O'Hara and John Candy.Most of the principals are briefly heard from. WRitersfor this doc are Nick Davis abd Jane Mendelsohn. Radner was the very first to be cast in "Saturday Night," a show created by Lorne Michaels, who was also Canadian.
Jayne Eastwood ibecame famous for her breakout role as Betty in the 1970 film Goin' Down the Road, her foundational work with Toronto's The Second City and SCTV, and memorable supporting turns in major films like My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Hairspray, and The Santa Clause. Martin Short is best known for his breakthrough television work on SCTV and Saturday Night Live, iconic comic creations like Ed Grimley and Jiminy Glick, hit comedy films like Three Amigos! and Father of the Bride, and his co-starring role in Only Murders in the Building.
The heavy-eyebrowed Eugene Levy, who frequently collaborated with Catherine O'Hara, is most famous for playing Johnny Rose in Schitt's Creek and Noah Levenstein (Jim's dad) in the American Pie films. Andrea Martin is known for her Emmy-winning work on the sketch comedy series SCTV, her iconic role as Aunt Voula in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and her celebrated Tony Award-winning Broadway performances.
And so on. This is a film for those interested in this slice of show business history, also simply interested in Canadian and American history of the 1970's generation and its impact on subsequent decades. A larger theme is how involvement in a single show may somehow engage a network of surprisingly influential or accomplished people. The flaw of the film arguably is however its being neither specific and detailed enough - there is not enough archival material or enough interviews for that - or specifically general and philosophical enough.
But as Owen Gleiberman argues in his Variety review, this moment was a major transition: previously comedy had been standup, and "the 'Saturday Night'/'SCTV' nexus" represented "something bold and new." It was "a spark of performance" that allowed the next generation of comedy "to connect with its audience in an unprecedentedly immediate way." These new artist were "not comedians" but "merry pranksters turned rock stars." Ultimately then, the subject here is "the 'Saturday Night'/'SCTV' nexus," more than the individual stars. But we will watch it for those stars nonetheless, and for the niche moment of genius this period and these people represent.
You Had to Be There, 98 mins., premiered at TIFF (Toronto) Sept. 6, 2025, showing also at Florida and Chicago. Limited theatrical release begins Sept. 25, 2026.