You’ll want to be at ‘You Had to Be There’

      Dozens of productions of “Godspell” have been staged over the decades, but only one seems to have been officially blessed by the Big Guy himself. That would be the 1972 Toronto version in which a dozen soon-to-be comedy legends established the genesis of what would become “Saturday Night Live” and “SCTV.”

    Regrettably, only a snippet of video footage exists. So, when filmmaker Nick Davis set out to recount this most sacred event, all he had to build from was that clip, a crude cassette tape illegally recorded by a cast member, and a dozen or so talking heads. Thus, the title, “You Had to Be There,” because if you weren’t, you totally missed out. But Davis provides the next best thing: animated avatars filling in for the youthful incarnations of Martin Short, Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Victor Garber, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas, Dan Scordino and Paul Shaffer, the show’s musical director

     It works marvelously, as they and a handful of their lesser-known castmates sit before Davis’s cameras to reminisce and take a well-deserved curtain call that makes you wish you could have been seated in Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre that blessed summer for the birth of multiple hall-of-fame careers and the dawn of the new comedy genre of improv.

     Several of the alums liken their time in Toronto to Paris in the 1920s, when the genius extended beyond the stage into after-parties and wee-hour meet-ups on Saturdays in the home shared by Short and Levy. Lifelong besties, the pair became the cast’s de facto leaders, with Short having the good sense to record some of those soirées – and the show itself – with his cut-rate cassette recorder.

   Those priceless tapes provide a fly-on-the-wall experience as you listen to history being made, with the likes of Dan Aykroyd, John Candy and the late great Catherine O’Hara occasionally joining in. Naturally, like most comedians, each felt the constant need to one-up each other, not unlike Lennon and McCartney. And, indeed, that “Godspell” cast was The Beatles of improv, sprouting tentacles that continue to grow today, from “Schitt’s Creek” to “Only Murders in the Building.”

    Now, well into their 70s, they pridefully look back, recounting the jealousies as well as the backstage romances, most notably Short’s on-and-off romance with Radner, who would become the first person ever Loren Michaels cast on “SNL.” You could absorb their stories for days and still want more, which makes the 98 minutes we’re allotted fly by in a snap. And as they kevetch, both separately and at a glorious reunion party, it’s impossible for boomers not to reflect back to when “Godspell’s” signature song, “Day by Day,” played seemingly nonstop on our transistor radios. Also, all those times you’d be at a college party and, at precisely 11:30, the stereo yielded to TV as we watched “SNL” as a community.

    For most of its runtime, “You Had to Be There” (ridiculously subtitled”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)”) is a joyous celebration of those halcyon days. The exception is when it comes time to mourn Radner’s untimely passing in 1989 and Avril Chown’s never-before-spoken-about rape in 1975 at the hands of a castmate during her time on “The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show,” a crime she says completely turned her off to showbiz.

    After hearing that, it’s difficult to get back into the frivolities. And the film never quite re-establishes its good-times vibe. It also notably glosses over the role recreational drugs and alcohol might have played in affecting them. And why are Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mike Myers, Jeanine Garafalo and Heidi Gardner here? What do they have to do with “Godspell”? I suppose it’s a ploy to attract younger viewers, but they are nothing but a distraction.

     Give me more of the people we’re here to see. And more wonderful anecdotes like the days-long funk Andrea Martin found herself in after not making it out of the highly competitive auditions, only to be invited back after the person she lost out to failed to show for rehearsals. Or Radner’s bonkers choice to sing “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” at her audition instead of covers from “Jesus Christ Superstar,” like most of her competitors.

    Speaking of Jesus, Garber was so good at playing him in Toronto that he scored the lead in the movie version of the show, amazingly the only Toronto cast member to do so. No sweat, most of them would go on to get their moments to shine.

     And although the likes of Rudy Webb and Jayne Eastwood, who chose family over showbiz, are only getting their 15 minutes now, it was worth the wait. They are fabulous. And you don’t want to miss them, or any of the others in what proves to be the epitome of a feel-good tale that you’d swear was heaven-sent.

Movie review

You Had to Be There

Rated: Not Rated

Featuring: Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Victor Garber, Dave Thomas, Paul Schaffer, Stephen Schwartz, Rudy Webb, Don Scardino and Avril Chown

Director: Nick Davis

Runtime: 98 minutes

Where: In theaters Sept. 25 (limited)

Grade: B