Your Arms Too Short to Box With God 50th Anniversary Concert
About this Event
The 1PM performance concludes with talk-back with special guests surrounding this musical's artistry.
Fifty years after it first lit up Broadway, a beloved gospel landmark returns. The York Theatre and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts present a special 50th anniversary concert of Vinnette Carroll's Your Arms Too Short to Box with God, directed by Marchánt Davis as part of his 2026 Micki Grant Artist Residency.
With music and lyrics by Alex Bradford and additional music and lyrics by Micki Grant, the show retells the Gospel of Matthew as a joyful, rafter-shaking Black church service. From the Passion to the crucifixion and resurrection, a company of preachers, sinners, and congregants sing, dance, and testify through the parables. Humor, heartbreak, and hallelujah share the same pew.
The original production ran on Broadway from December 1976 to January 1978, totaling 429 performances, and returned in revivals in 1980, with Jennifer Holiday and 1982, with Al Green and Patti Labelle. Its title echoes a sermon line in James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, a phrase that has become a touchstone about humility before something larger than ourselves.
That is the heart of its legacy. Carroll and her collaborators placed Black gospel, Black artistry, and Black faith at the center of the Broadway stage, opening doors for generations of performers who followed. Davis, who previously directed a workshop production of the piece, honors that lineage by passing the torch to a new generation of artists and audiences. Join The York Theatre and the Library for the Performing Arts to celebrate a half-century of joy, testimony, and song. Bring your voice. You may need it.
Photo Credit: Martha Swope Photograph Courtesy of the Billy Rose Theatre Division
SEATING POLICY | Programs are free and open to all, but registration is requested. Check-in line forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. Five minutes before the advertised start time, all seats are released, regardless of registration, to our patrons in the stand-by line. If you arrive after the program starts, you will be seated at the discretion of our front-of-house staff.
STANDBY LINE | If registration is sold out or has ended, do not fret! We welcome you to come to the Library regardless of registration status and wait in our standby line, which forms 45 minutes before the advertised start time. Five minutes before the program starts, all remaining seats are released. While this is not guaranteed, we will do our best to get you into any of our programs.
ASSISTIVE LISTENING AND ASL | ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing [email protected].
BRUNO WALTER POLICY | Please note that any unoccupied seat will be released five minutes before the show begins and holding seats for anyone beyond that is prohibited. There is no food or drink allowed inside the venue.
AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING | Programs may be photographed and recorded by and at the discretion of the Library for the Performing Arts and will post signs indicating as such. If you would prefer your image not be captured, please let us know and we can seat you accordingly. Attending any program indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any and all purposes of the New York Public Library.
PRESS | Please send all press inquiries to Alex Teplitzky at [email protected]. Please note that all recording, including professional video recordings, are prohibited without expressed consent from the Library.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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