One Night in Miami

One Night in Miami is the debut play written by Kemp Powers, first performed in 2013. It is a fictional account of a real night, 25 February 1964. It pinpoints a pivotal moment in the lives of four, still nascent, black American icons whose potential, thoughts and actions play out in the 90 minute, one-act play. The scenario presents an audacious challenge - to cast 22 year old, newly crowned world boxing champion Cassius Clay as he transforms into Muhammad Ali, controversial Nation of Islam leader / mentor Malcolm X, influential singer-songwriter and record producer Sam Cooke and star NFL footballer Jim Brown. The men, friends in real life, celebrate Clay's surprise title win over Sonny Liston in a Miami hotel room, watched over by Nation of Islam security.^[1]

World Premiere

Kemp Powers won the Ted Schmitt Award for outstanding world premiere of a new play for One Night in Miami.^[2] The production took place in Los Angeles at Rogue Machine Theatre in June 2013, where Powers was a resident playwright.^[3] It also won three LA Drama Critics Circle Awards, four NAACP Theatre Awards (best playwright, best director, best ensemble cast, best producer) and LA Weekly Theater Awards for playwriting and direction ^[4][5][6]

The trailer for the world premiere at Rogue Machine Theatre includes cast, director Carl Cofield and playwright Kemp Powers. Powers explains how he wished to show the friends as men sharing very real, complex concerns, allowing a glimpse beyond their now mythic status. Cofield considers that the play offers a catalyst for audiences to go away and learn more about the truth of Jim Brown, Sam Cooke, Malcolm X and Cassius Clay.^[5]

Reception

The Hollywood Reporter described One Night in Miami as 'a well-drafted and intricate sketch, with an uncommon feeling for shading. It gives fine actors good material to play in a congenially theatrical mode'^[7]

Variety commented, 'It's easy to see why investors are eyeing this crackerjack world premiere. Any playwright can stick celebrity facsimiles together in a room; it takes real talent not only to render those portraits believable but also to invest the encounter with dramatic weight'^[8]

The LA Times wrote that 'the pull of history and considerable topicality sells One Night in Miami at Rogue Machine. Although this well -appointed dramedy about what might have gone down in the Hampton House hotel the night that Cassius Clay became world heavyweight champion slightly overdoes the 20/20 hindsight, that doesn’t stop it from grabbing our imaginations'^[9]

Cast and creatives

• Director: Carl Cofield
• Cast: Kevin Daniels, Jason Delane, Matt Jones, Ty Jones, Jason E. Kelley, Burl Moseley, Giovanni Adams, and Jah Shams
• Scenic Design: Stephanie Kerley Schwartz
• Lighting Design: Leigh Allen
• Sound Design: Christopher Moscatiello

European Premiere

The European premiere was at the Donmar Warehouse, London, 6 October - 3 December 2016.^[10]

The Donmar Warehouse website described the setting and background:

"The world would come to know him as Muhammad Ali, but on 25 February 1964, 22-year old Cassius Clay was celebrating his world heavyweight title - not by hitting the town, but in a hotel room with his three closest friends: activist Malcolm X, singer Sam Cooke and American football star Jim Brown.

To the outside world, they were American icons. But in that hotel room, here were four men who understood each other and their moment in history in a way that no one else could. With the Civil Rights movement stirring outside, and the melody of ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ hanging in the air, these men would emerge from that room ready to define a new world'.^[11]

Reception

The response to the European premiere praised both the outstanding individual performances and the committed ensemble playing^{[12][13][14][15][16]}

The Financial Times wrote about the play's depiction of a pivotal moment in black American history.^[17] The Evening Standard considered why it was more than just an Ali play.^[18]

The play provokes and entertains as it depicts great humour and the complexities of the men's private selves behind their public personas. The London production in 2016 followed debates about black representation and 'race relations, black empowerment, and the twisted nature of celebrity' raised by the 2013 premiere in America^[19]

The director, Kwame Kwei-Armah and the actors in the London run have described the process and demands involved in creating performances which aim to credibly define the characters, friendship and lives of four black, controversial icons at a critical point in their lives and as a part of American history.^[20]

Sope Dirisu, who played Cassius Clay, said "people often sugar-coat Ali's life and find it convenient to forget the struggles of the time he lived through". All actors agreed when interviewed by the BBC that the play shouldn't be seen as a political tract. Dirisu also said Powers told the cast his play should feel like watching best friends in a room, "even in previews we've felt the audience picking up on that - I feel I'm on stage with my brothers. The energy is amazing."^[21]

David Ajala, who played Jim Brown, the NFL star,^[22] remembered something Powers said that really struck him, "Kemp said this was the play he would love to have seen as a 16-year-old - the black Avengers...a group of guys fighting for different causes but also for a common cause. And they're held in high regard and are iconic people. The simplicity of that and the excitement of it has really resonated with me: in that room we're all superheroes in our own way, in each other's company.""^[21]

François Battiste, the only American actor in the European premiere, who played Malcom X, said, "you don't have the ability to tell these stories unless you are actively pursuing the new writers. There are a whole lot of writers out there who need to be heard."^[21]

Arinze Kene, whose portrayal effectively included singing Sam Cooke songs, commented on increasing diversity, "the fact that the situation is getting better shows not how great things are now, but only that they used to be even worse. We've got a long way to go."^[23][24][25]

Boxing commentators, expressed admiration for the credible language of the play, pointing out in regard to Clay/Ali that the production "succeeds in portraying a thoroughly believable Ali. Actor Sope Dirisu bounds around the room with Ali’s restless swagger. Writing lines for a man who came up with countless memorable quotes would be a tough ask for any playwright. Copy lines he used in other contexts and it risks sounding forced; come up with completely fresh ones and it risks sounding weak compared to the original. Kemp Powers pulls it off, capturing both the cockiness and the wit: "They had Joe Louis on one side of the ring, Rocky Marciano on the other. Halfway through the sixth, I saw them looking at each other, like they was asking themselves "why couldn’t we do that when we was young?"^[26]

The Donmar Warehouse production which opened on 6 October 2016, is the first dramatic portrayal of the boxer Muhammad Ali since he died aged 74 in June 2016. Ali’s family gave their blessing to the production.^[27]

Cast and creatives

Cast

• David Ajala - Jim Brown
• François Battiste (US actor, appeared with permission of American Equity/UK Equity exchange programme) - Malcolm X
• Sope Dirisu - Cassius Clay
• Arinze Kene - Sam Cooke
• Dwane Walcott - Kareeem
• Josh Williams - Jamaal

Creatives

• Kwame Kwei-Armah - director
• Robert Jones - designer
• John Leonard - sound designer
• Brett Yount - fight director
• Duncan McLean - video designer^[28]

References