‘You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution…’ Review: An Exuberant and Essential Doc for Comedy Heads

The comedy revolution referred to by the title of Nick Davis’s sharp and effusive documentary “You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution…” 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” 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. The Toronto production featured a young Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Dave Thomas (all Canadian), and, from across the river, Detroit’s own Gilda Radner — who was the very first performer to be cast on “Saturday Night,” a show created by Lorne Michaels, who was also Canadian.

You might say: Okay,…