THE STORY – 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. As for what happened next, that may be most accurately expressed by the subtitle for Nick Davis’s celebratory documentary, “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).”
THE CAST – Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Victor Garber, Jayne Eastwood, Paul Shaffer, Dave Thomas, Stephen Schwartz, Avril Chown, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mike Myers, Heidi Gardner, Janeane Garofolo, Dan Aykroyd, Gary Gulman, James Austin Johnson, Don Scardino, Rudy Webb, & Valda Aviks
THE TEAM – Nick Davis (Director/Writer) & Jane Mendelsohn (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 98 Minutes
When “Godspell,” Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak’s musical retelling of the Gospel of Matthew, opened Off Broadway in 1971, it was a sensation, becoming popular enough to run for five years and launch professional productions around the world. “Godspell” was a big hit everywhere it played, but the Toronto production is the stuff of legend. When the Toronto production opened at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in 1972, its cast members were nobodies at the start of their careers. But over the years, nearly all of them ascended to the showbiz stratosphere: Jayne Eastwood, Victor Garber, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Gilda Radner, Martin Short, Dave Thomas, Don Scardino, and even musical director Paul Shaffer.
The cast, which also included well-known Canadians Avril Chown, Rudy Webb, and Gerry Salsberg, became the talk of the town in Toronto. Later, one was handpicked to headline the film adaptation of the musical, one went on to join the cast of one of the biggest TV shows in Canada, one had joined the legendary first cast of “Saturday Night Live,” and half of them worked together again on the massively influential “SCTV” sketch comedy show. Given those last two, it’s easy to see why director Nick Davis would title his documentary about the production and its legacy “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).” The boastful title promises a lot, and while the access Davis got will make musical theater fans salivate, the film doesn’t quite live up to it. Instead, it’s a modest, playful slice of nostalgia, with slight delusions of grandeur. In other words, it’s very much like “Godspell.”
Every living member of the original ensemble and Shaffer, as well as replacements like Thomas, agreed to sit for interviews for the film, and they’re all as ebulliantly endearing as you would expect from every time you’ve ever seen any of them in anything over the years. What’s really incredible is listening to the recordings Short illegally made of one of their performances and realizing that they haven’t really changed much in the 50-plus years since they performed in “Godspell.” The show, which encourages each performer to make their role their own, especially through improvisation, needed performers with big personalities, and these kids were all gigantic personalities. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense that they were all cast (including Andrea Martin, who didn’t even make the first callback), and that the production feels fated. The cast obviously all feel this way, as their crystal clear recollections of that time indicate that it was a formative experience for them all.
And what memories they share! Each cast member explains how their lives led to Godspell, accompanied by endearing old photos from their early years. Martin Short recounts the story of re-recording an entire Frank Sinatra album as a young boy and receiving written feedback. Jayne Eastwood, who had already made a name for herself in Canadian independent cinema when she got “Godspell,” sets the scene for the musical’s popularity by describing Canadian cinema of the ‘60s and ‘70s as “my long, snowy walk of death.” Avril Chown, a former go-go dancer, details the incredibly corny comedic stylings of Wayne & Schuster, the only comedy on Canadian TV at the time. Eugene Levy regales us with tales of how the house a few of them lived in during the “Godspell” run became a hotbed of up-and-coming talent hanging out and making each other laugh. The recordings from these parties showcase the cast members’ natural sense of humor, making it immediately clear what kindred spirits they were and why everyone wanted a piece of that magic (a John Candy bit from a “Gilda & Friends” special about how much he hates “Godspell” because he wasn’t in it absolutely kills).
The problem with all of this is that it’s not in the least bit surprising to discover that these hilariously talented people have pretty much always been just as talented and hilarious as they are now. Due to the ephemeral nature of theater, they can’t recreate the performance, and no full recording of the production exists (hence the film’s title). Early on, one of the cast members describes it as like throwing a stone into the ocean: after a while, you can no longer see the stone, but you can see the ripples it made. And that’s very much true of the Toronto “Godspell,” but the ripples the production made are so obvious that we hardly need this film to point them out to us after introducing the cast. However, someone managed to find a clip of a recorded dress rehearsal of the production, and that one clip makes everything worth it. Davis shows it to the cast members, and watching them watch it five decades later is undeniably touching. For that one sequence, this cute but hardly necessary film becomes completely magical and essential for fans of any of these performers.
