One Night in Miami

One Night in Miami, the debut play written by Kemp Powers and first performed in 2013, 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.

Kemp Powers won the Ted Schmitt Award for outstanding world premiere of a new play for One Night in Miami. The production took place in Los Angeles at Rogue Machine Theatre in June 2013, where Powers was a resident playwright. 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

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.

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'

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'

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