Tell Hell I Ain’t Comin’ re-opens in USA in 2012.

Be sure to check back for show dates and cities.  First show/date will be around Feb/March in New Jersey.

Also, stay tuned to the pre-production of the movie version of Tell Hell I Ain’t Comin’

Many other great plans in the works for Tell Hell USA 2012

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Welcome !

“Tell Hell I Ain’t Comin” has presented 92 Live Show Performances across the USA, and the very successful DVD version of the Live Show continues to captivate its audiences. The production boasts big dance numbers, Tear jerking scenes, funny moments, a powerful story, and an unforgettable experience for its audience.

At last the waiting is over, and after all the excitement of one of the most talked about Gospel Musical in the USA, the cast of “Tell Hell I Ain’t Comin” are honored to be at the Catford Broadway Theatre on Sunday, 07 April 2011. We have a host of A-list actors/actress’ will be joining the show.

This is a stage play you can’t miss, written by Marcia P. Samuels whose prominence has withstood the test of time to clearly illustrate her stamina.

Stay tuned for more updates……..

The Story Behind The Poem

As the airplane climbed the airways, the thought of the plane nose-diving occupied my mind.   I calculated a theory in my tired mind that if I am going to die, I want to be awake for that final event of my existence.  I fought the sleepiness that had now engulfed my being

Yet, something else made me more uncomfortable than the thought of the plane crashing. Dying was one thing, but where I would end up after I died was clearly another, more frightening thought. I closed my eyes and asked God to forgive me for all the sins I could recall that I had committed – especially those I might have committed that day – and hoped with all my heart that God had heard my very sincere prayer.

Sleep eventually got the better of me, but for how long, I do not know.  I recall rubbing sleep from my eyes as I searched for my carry-on notebook. With my notebook in hand, I put pen to paper and forty-five minutes later I had penned a ten-page prose entitled, “What In Hell do you want?”   Little did I know the impact that this poem was destined to make in so many lives.

Some weeks after writing the poem, I publicly read it at a church.  The response was indeed overwhelming.  For the next ten years, I read the poem at churches and other functions in England, Jamaica, and the USA. I read to audiences as small as fifty and as large as five thousand.

In the mid eighties, I moved from London to California, USA.  Not long afterward, I read the poem at an International Youth Rally in San Diego, California.   About two years later, while I was attending a function in Los Angeles, California, a man in his mid-thirties approached me. On approaching me, he hugged me. “You don’t know me,” he said. “But I know you.”  He then went on to tell me this most touching and inspiring story.  This is what he said:

“You see, about two years ago I prepared myself to commit suicide.  I wrote and mailed letters to family and friends.   That night as I climbed into bed, I saw a crumpled sheet of paper lying under the covers.  I smoothed it out and read it.  It was a flyer announcing the upcoming Youth Rally in San Diego.  I threw the flyer on the floor and climb into bed.  As I reached for the gun, the image of the flyer came back.  Then I had a thought, if I was going to take my life, I should at least make one more trip to the place my mother always made sure I went to as a child.

“Thirty minutes later, I was sitting in the back of that Youth Rally. I listened to the many choirs. I listened to the many testimonies, and I listened to the preaching.  Nothing I heard touched me enough to change my mind from going home and taking my life; at least not until you got up and read that Poem, “What in Hell do you want?” That was all I needed. That poem is what I was searching for.”

“You see,” he continued, “That night I went home and retracted all my letters.”    He then took my hands in his and squeezed them. “Today,” he said, “Today, I am clean.  I got off drugs.  I started going to church.  I recently got married.  I am also now a minister. Thank you.”

He hugged me again and we stood there for a while.  Soon, I felt tears streaming down my face.  I never saw that man again, but for him alone, if for no one else, I thank God for giving me the words to write the poem.

In the late-‘80’s I somewhat retired the reading of the poem.

What In Hell Do You Want?

“The Poem” Became Tell Hell  I Ain’t Comin’ “The Musical”

On s Saturday Morning in March 1993, I shared with a neighbor about the poem, during that conversation she said to me, “Why don’t you turn the poem into a play?”  Later that same day, I tape-recorded the first version of what would become the hit musical, TELL HELL I AIN’T COMIN’.

TELL HELL PRESENT STATUS:

PAST – PRESENT – FUTURE OF “TELL HELL I AIN’T COMIN’”

LIVE SHOW VERSION:

• Over 90 live performances across the USA

• New York Debut and re-filming of the DVD coming shortly.

DVD Version

Filmed in 2005, the DVD is continuously setting its mark:

Although to date there has never been any type of exclusive marketing on the release of the DVD, the product still boast a report of thousands in sales, all from “word of mouth recommendations: