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) (2026)
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Director: Nick Davis Run Time: 98 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 2026
Starring: Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy, Jayne Eastwood, Martin Short, Victor Garber
Country: Canada, United States
Language: English
About the film:
Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Victor Garber, Paul Shaffer, and other entertainment icons got their start in a 1972 Toronto production of the musical Godspell. Featuring interviews with the surviving cast members, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mike Myers, and more, the film recounts a pivotal moment in comedy history, in hilarious, moving, and inspiring detail. Executive produced by Judd Apatow.
You Had to Be There (2026) was the second runner-up for the People’s Choice Award at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.
About the filmmaker:
Nick Davis is a writer, director, and producer, whose work spans film, sports, history, culture, and comedy. He has directed many works for television as well as the narrative feature 1999 (1998) and the documentary films Jack: The Last Kennedy Film (1993) and Leaving Tracks (2021). His film roots run deep—Davis is the son of Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Peter Davis and writer Johanna Mankiewicz Davis, and is the grandson of screenwriter and producer Herman J. Mankiewicz, co-writer of Citizen Kane. Davis also has a strong comedy background. While at Harvard, he was a member of the improvisational comedy group On Thin Ice and later wrote and performed with Gotham City Improv and You And What Army. He also co-wrote the novel “Boone” with Brooks Hansen, published in 1990 and named by The New York Times as one of the notable books of the year.
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