SCREEN | Revisiting 'Godspell' – 'You Had to Be There' x WFF 2025

"It was the most joyous show to do."

Whistler Film Festival

New York-based filmmaker Nick Davis revisits the legendary 1972 Toronto company production of the Stephen Schwartz hippie musical Godspell, known for its lasting legacy of featuring some of the biggest names in Canadian comedic talent, in his documentary, 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).

From executive producer Judd Apatow, the film takes a look at now-famous cast members who would later become comedy royalty, including the likes of Martin Short, Victor Garber, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, and many more (then all in their early twenties). Davis' reverential approach to documenting the ephemeral nature of theatre through artists and performers in the 1970s gives so much breadth to the exploration of a moment in time.

Seen in interviews with notable fans turned performers, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mike Myers, Heidi Gardner, and others, You Had to Be There both refrains and embraces a fandom take on mythologizing the burgeoning Toronto comedy scene by way of this particularly notable musical stage production. Beyond Godspell, Davis and his subjects see the cast's influence on other later legendary projects, including the inaugural Second City Toronto cast, its later cult TV show SCTV, the first cast of Saturday Night Live in 1975, and much more.

There's so much genuine admiration and reverence for this revisiting of the booming talent of the entertainment scene coming out of mid-'70s Toronto. For true comedy nerds, it's a rather personal look at a time and place and its later titanic influence on the later iconic 1980s American show business comedy landscape.

You Had to Be There screened at the 2025 Whistler Film Festival as part of the Canadian Features program.


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