NEW YORK, NY.- Film Forum will present the U.S. theatrical premiere of Nick Davis’ 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) on Friday, September 18.

The 1972 Toronto production of the musical Godspell featured an eye-popping cast of future comedy titans: Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Gilda Radner, Dave Thomas — with Victor Garber as a hippie Jesus and Paul Shaffer as musical director. The production itself was supposed to play for only a handful of weeks, but was such a smash hit that it was extended and ran for over a year and a half, during which time Martin and Levy became original members of Second City Television, and Garber left to star in the feature film of Godspell. When Toronto native Lorne Michaels was hired a couple years later to create a new late night comedy show on NBC, the first person he cast was an actress he’d first seen in Godspell: Radner. The comedy revolution was on.

You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution… features interviews with all surviving members, as well as composer Stephen Schwartz, Musical Director Paul Shaffer, Dan Aykroyd, Mike Myers, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, hilariously recounting a production that changed the course of comedy in North America.

The film had its world premiere in the Special Presentations lineup at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival and went on to screen at festivals nationally.

“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. A delightful romp down memory lane that takes surprising twists and turns.... You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution... abounds in hilarious anecdotes... A funny and moving ride.” — Matthew Carey, Deadline





“An exuberant and essential doc for comedy heads... The comedy revolution referred to by the title of Nick Davis’s sharp and effusive documentary is the one that took place on television in the ’70s: the creation of Saturday Night Live and SCTV and everything that grew out of them You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution... makes the case that the Petri dish from which the DNA of those shows was sprung was the 1972 Toronto production of Godspell, the Jesus-and-his-followers-as-hippie-clowns musical that had rocked the world when it premiered on Broadway the year before… You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution... shows you that something was in the air up there, and that it spread like the world’s happiest virus.” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

“Director Nick Davis’ terrific return to this historic event offers a laugh-a-minute trip down memory lane that’s not merely nostalgic. It’s a valuable oral history of a defining moment in pop culture... A hugely entertaining record of Canadian cultural history worthy of time and celebration. And, in perhaps the most Canadian trait ever, it’s an American production.” – Pat Mullen, POV Magazine

“Documentarian Nick Davis aims to bring us back to this pivotal time and place with the preposterously and perfectly titled [film].... You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution... is so stuffed with interviews with comedy icons, remarkable anecdotes, and cheeky revelations that it's manna from heaven for comedy nerds…” – Kristy Puchko, Mashable