Vinnette Carroll, 80, a director, actress and playwright who created the 1976 Broadway musical Your Arms Too Short to Box With God, died Tuesday in Lauderhill, Fla., of complications from diabetes and heart disease.

Ms. Carroll, a longtime resident of New York City, specialized in productions by black writers and composers. In 1972, she became the first black woman to direct on Broadway -- a musical revue called Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope at the Playhouse Theatre.

Ms. Carroll also was the first black woman to bring gospel music to Broadway -- a 1969 adaptation of Langston Hughes' poetry that became Trumpets of the Lord.

She won an Emmy in 1964 for a television dramatization of selections by black poets called Beyond the Blues. She also created and directed the musical When Hell Freezes Over, I'll Skate at the Kennedy Center in Washington and on PBS.