My nominee for this year’s most unruly title for a film at TIFF 50 comes from the Godspell documentary You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution…. (and that’s the abbreviated version!). The 1972 Toronto production of Godspell not only produced Victor Garber’s turn as Jesus. But it was the first exposure for comedic royalty in the likes of Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Gilda Radner, and Dave Thomas, along with musical director Paul Shaffer. Garber would shortly depart after being pegged to play the role in the 1973 film version, but the rest of the cast would bond profoundly over the 12-month, 8-performance-a-week run of the show.
Thanks to the ‘illegal’ recordings that Short made on his little tape recorder during the play’s initial run, director Nick Davis has audio from the show and the weekly Friday night parties the cast would have at the home of Levy and Short at 1063 Avenue Road. An abode that would coincidentally become John Candy’s house for a while after Levy and Short moved out. Davis uses these recordings to be the backdrop to some 1970s-style, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, inspired animation sequences that are eye-catching in their retro feel.
After a brief attempt at a second run, after most of the cast except Levy had left, the production shut down permanently. But most of the cast would not be left hanging for long, as they joined the Toronto troupe of Second City, eventually leading to SCTV.
- Genre: Animation, Comedy, Documentary
- Release Date: 9/6/2025
- Directed by: Nick Davis
- Starring: Andrea Martin, Avril Chown, Dan Aykroyd, Dave Thomas, Don Scardino, Eugene Levy, Gary Gulman, Heidi Gardner, James Austin Johnson, Janeane Garofolo, Jayne Eastwood, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Martin Short, Mike Myers, Paul Shaffer, Rudy Webb, Stephen Schwartz, Valda Aviks, Victor Garber
- Produced by: Bonnie Comley, Jan Gura, Josh Church, Judd Apatow, Kinder Labatt, Nick Davis, Stewart F. Lane, Susan Turley, Tom Powers, Zachary Hausman
- Written by: Jane Mendelsohn, Nick Davis
- Studio: Canada CBC Films, Lancom Entertainment, SERIES OF DREAMS, XRM Media
