Theatre critic J. Wynn Rousuck reviews "One Night In Miami", playing at Center Stage through February 22nd.
Here's her review:
Kemp Powers’ play, “One Night in Miami…”, offers an imaginary look at a real event. On February 25, 1964, four famous men from different fields gathered in a Miami hotel room: Prizefighter Cassius Clay, singer-songwriter Sam Cooke, Civil Rights leader Malcolm X and pro-football star Jim Brown.
Friends, they came together to celebrate the world heavyweight championship, won earlier that night, by underdog Cassius Clay. Clay – played by Sullivan Jones at Center Stage -- re-enacts his defeat of Sonny Liston near the start of the play.
Director Kwame Kwei-Armah pulls out all the theatrical stops in staging this East Coast premiere. But the flourishes – a small boxing ring in the lobby, a hotel check-in desk just outside the theater doors and lots of projections -- can’t disguise a deficit of drama.
“One Night in Miami...” is the first full-length play by Kemp Powers, a veteran journalist. But the play feels like a historical placeholder. The actual drama happens before the play begins (Clay’s victory in the ring) or after it ends (the shooting deaths of Malcolm X and Sam Cooke less than a year later).
Two seasons ago, Center Stage produced another fictionalized account of a Civil Rights leader in a hotel room. Katori Hall’s “The Mountaintop” imagined an encounter between Martin Luther King, Jr., and a hotel maid on the last night of his life.
But where “The Mountaintop” took an inventive, theatrical leap, “One Night in Miami...” takes a more conventional, prosaic approach.
Even so, the performances are powerful. Sullivan Jones’ Clay is youthful, proud and preening, but he also conveys Clay’s serious side. Esau Pritchett’s good-time Jim Brown, however, and Grasan Kingsberry’s smooth Sam Cooke insist they came here to party, not to get mired in serious issues.
There are potential dramatic sparks, such as the recurring friction between Kingsberry’s Cooke and Tory Andrus’ solemn Malcolm X. Both believe they are bettering the lot of the black man in America -- but they come at this from opposite directions. Cooke, a successful businessman, insists he’s beating the white establishment at its own game. Malcolm X doesn’t want blacks to have anything to do with the white establishment.
Instead of drama, however, this friction comes across as debate. Director Kwei-Armah takes a more active approach when Cooke demonstrates how he performs his hit, “You Send Me,” for his black fans. Kingsberry steps off the stage and takes his church-style, soul-infused rendition into the audience. It’s the production’s liveliest scene.
The morning after the play takes place, Cassius Clay announced he was joining the Nation of Islam, becoming Muhammad Ali. This decision should be a pivotal point in the play, and playwright Powers does inject an element of tension by having Clay still mulling it over with Malcolm. But most of the tension in “One Night in Miami...” is off-stage, or, in the case of Malcolm X, off to the side. There, two Nation of Islam guards protect Malcolm – or more accurately, keep tabs on him. The troubled minister explains that his relationship with the Nation of Islam has become, as he puts it, “complicated.”
For too much of the evening, the playwright crams in exposition with heavy-handed lead-ins on the order of: “You remember the time…” There’s lots of reminiscing and a few predictions, but not enough action or surprises or revelations. And, projecting photos of recent high-profile black victims of white violence overstates the obvious message that race relations have stalled – or even regressed.
“One Night in Miami...” lets us peak into a room where four highly charged, real-life characters celebrate, argue, philosophize, get on each other’s nerves and declare their friendship. There are some interesting moments. But the sum of these moments doesn’t add up to a moving night of theater -- just a speculative glimpse at a footnote to history.
