Martin Short (lightning vest), Victor Garber (striped pants), Eugene Levy (mustache), and Gilda Radner (orange tights) in a 1972 Canadian production of *Godspell,* the subject of a new documentary.

Only Messiahs in the Building

A new documentary revisits the fabled 1972 Toronto Godspell production that launched the careers of Martin Short, Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, and Victor Garber

By John Brodie

Long before he was Johnny Rose on Schitt’s Creek, Eugene Levy wanted desperately to play Jesus in Godspell. (Yes, after all those Renaissance frescoes, it is hard to remember that Jesus was, in fact, Jewish.) The year was 1972. The show had debuted at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York on May 17, 1971, and roughly 1,000 young Canadian actors turned up to audition for the local production that would premiere at Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre the following June. Few of them had seen the show or knew the songs.

Levy planned to perform “Aquarius,” the earworm from Hair that had become a massive hit for the Fifth Dimension. He wasn’t the only future comedian hoping for a break. Andrea Martin, who would later create Edith Prickley on SCTV, was there. Levy’s roommate, an aspiring actor named Martin Short, auditioned with “My Funny Valentine.” Paul Shaffer, the future bandleader for David Letterman (and the co-writer of the Weather Girls’ “It’s Raining Men”), was the musical director. Gilda Radner showed up in pigtails and performed “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,” previewing the whimsy and fearlessness that would surface in her Saturday Night Live characters.