God Doesn't Mean You Get To Live Forever

God Doesn't Mean You Get To Live Forever is a Gospel Stage Play written by former Duke Ellington Orchestra trombonist Gregory Charles Royal who also authored the jazz play It's a Hardbop Life. The play is in the genre that Royal has championed: plays that feature actual musicians as principal actors.^[1] It is currently running Off Broadway in New York's Broadway Theater District.

The producers of the play, American Youth Symphony, have a mandate to produce works that feature instrumental musicians. During the first mounting of the production, the casting of Kenneth "Skillet" Crutchfield in the role of "Pasa Skillet" (Pastor), who was the drummer in the original Broadway company of Ain't Misbehavin and Royal in the role of "Q." who was in the original Broadway company of Five Guys Named Moe satisfy that mandate. That production also features vocalist Robbie Love who is the daughter of legendary singer Mary Love in the lead role of "Reese"; John B. Ross who appeared in the musical Mama, I Want To Sing! in the Role of the "Deacon"; and Zarin Veres Royal in the role of "Melanie". ^[2]

In December 2012, the production was mounted again as a series of performances in New York at the Baruch Performing Arts Center starring Gregory Charles Royal, Frenchie Davis (in the role of "Reese Noel") and The Reverend Dr. James A. Forbes Jr. as himself.

God Doesn't Mean You Get To Live Forever delves into the notion that belief in God may not translate into the eventuality of everlasting life and the conflict such a notion brings upon a gospel musician, "Q."^[3]

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