Who knew? Who freaking knew that my favourite Canadian comedians had also starred in my favourite musical, Godspell!?
You Had To Be There
Series of Dreams, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Treeview Productions bring us the story behind the 1972 Toronto production of Godspell, You Had To Be There, with audio illegally recorded by Martin Short. Produced and directed by Nick Davis, many of the stars of Toronto’s Godspell are also famous comedians that we have grown to love from SCTV and Saturday Night Live, including Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Victor Garber, Paul Shaffer, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, and Jayne Eastwood….and that is just the tip of the iceberg.
In 1972, I worked in the Intensive Care Unit at a small South Philly Hospital. I was a single mom who shared her love for Broadway musicals with my three-year-old daughter. I would take her to the Shubert Theatre or Locust Street Theater at least once a month to see a musical. But our favorite of all the musicals was Godspell.
Godspell is a rock musical about Jesus and his disciples, with the parables of the Christ put to music that not only had you dancing but gave you a better understanding of the meaning of the parables. Our neighbourhood Catholic Church had the most boring music ever played on the organ and sung by a choir. The people in that choir looked like they wished they were anywhere but that church. I once asked our parish priest if the choir could play the songs from Godspell. He was ready to perform an exorcism on me for even suggesting good music. Needless to say, I left the church and listened to Godspell or Jesus Christ Superstar on Sundays instead.
I think this is why I was so excited to watch You Had to Be There. This was a film about my favourite entertainers. This was about the cast of Second City TV and the original SNL. This was a side of Martin Short and Eugene Levy that I never knew about. This film is like a time machine where we watch Victor Garber play Jesus and Paul Shaffer as the musical director. This documentary film shows how these amazing comedians became friends and how Godspell helped shape their comedic timing.
Martin Short and Eugene Levy, along with the above-named actors/comedians, take us back to a time when they were mostly rookies. Just kids daring to live a dream. Martin Short originally studied to be a doctor; luckily for us, he changed his mind. There is no film of the Toronto production of Godspell, but Short illegally recorded it. I especially enjoyed the reminiscing about how the auditions for the musical took place and how Garber earned his spot as Jesus, or how Gilda Radner’s audition consisted of a wacky version of “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah”.
Conclusion
You Had to Be There is a tribute to the people who are no longer with us, as well as a recognition of the hard work it takes to break into show business. The film is about friends who were and are talented and creative people. They carved out a special niche for themselves where everyone was considered family…and in some cases…were family. It was a time in history when a musical like Godspell would captivate the world, and when Toronto brought together the most creative comedic minds in show business.
You Had to Be There rolls out in Canadian theatres on September 25th and will also expand to theatres nationwide across the United States, distributed by Greenwich Entertainment.
