Part of Doctober
On June 1, 1972, a humble production of a hit musical retelling of the Book of Matthew officially opened its run at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in downtown Toronto. Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Victor Garber, Paul Shaffer and other entertainment icons all got their start in Godspell. As for what happened next, that may be most accurately expressed by the subtitle for Nick Davis’ celebratory 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). With its deft mix of engaging interviews with surviving participants, animated recreations, and other means of compensating for the scarcity of original archival materials (if only audience members had smartphones in 1972), YOU HAD TO BE THERE brings this special time back into the present with an irrepressible sense of joy.
“Joyous…. The 1972 Godspell planted seeds that would grow into a tree of many branches — one branch being SNL, another SCTV, another being comedies like BEST IN SHOW.” —Matthew Carey, Deadline “So stuffed with interviews with comedy icons, remarkable anecdotes, and cheeky revelations that it's manna from heaven for comedy nerds…. YOU HAD TO BE THERE is most fun when the cut leaps from one individual interview to another, creating the sense that we're at a dinner party with some of the coolest people on the planet.” —Kristy Puchko, Mashable “The niftiness of Davis’s film is that it’s about Godspell, and it’s about something bigger than Godspell — a pop movement that didn’t have a name yet, a cultural spirit that found its way into existence almost like (laughing) gas gathering in the air…. The lifeblood of the new comedy revolution wasn’t stand-up — it was improv. And that’s the spirit celebrated in the documentary…. Comedy was their communication, their jam session, their way of connecting. Life itself had become improv.” —Owen Gleiberman, Variety
Additional showtimes may be posted on Mon, Oct 5
