Jones, Leavengood go retro-rock in ‘Silver Alert’

To Bill Leavengood’s way of thinking, Silver Alert might be the best play he’s written yet.

The St. Petersburg resident’s locally-produced works include Ghost Stories From Yellowstone, The Azure Sky in Oz, Sister-Mothers of Gulfport, Webb’s City: The Musical and Gaspar! The Musical.

He’s a member of New York’s New Circle Theatre Company, where many of his works-in-progress have been developed and produced. Silver Alert first appeared there, in a workshop production, in 2018.

The dark comedy’s two characters are Baze Acosta and Gus “Gone” Galloway, who’d played together in a semi-successful (accent on semi) rock band in the 1970s and ‘80s.

Forty mostly-hard years have passed, and the two old rascals meet again, in an assisted living facility. They plot and execute an escape.

“This relationship is so interesting, and so different, and moving,” Leavengood says. “And they’re both so funny – they’re always being mean as s–t to each other, but it never bothers them.”

Here the playwright catches himself. “It’s my work, and you’re not supposed to gush about your stuff.”

Still.

With Bob Devin Jones as Baze, and Leavengood himself playing Gone, Silver Alert will be presented as a staged reading Wednesday and Thursday (April 30 and May 1) at The Studio@620. Both performances are fundraisers for the theater.

“I always wanted it to be a white guy and a Black guy,” Leavengood reveals. “Not that I was trying to be politically correct, but I wanted it to be about a friendship that tried to transcend that reality, because of the personalities involved.”

The intervening years brought drug abuse, jail time and other misadventures, and even though they followed very different paths, the bond between Baze and Gone remains strong. “It’s a very unique friendship that has survived a lot,” says Leavengood, “but underneath both of them have all kinds of things that need to come out and need to get settled.”

Jones, the co-founder and longtime director of The Studio@620 (he retired last year), had done the honors when Leavengood debuted Silver Alert, for a private local audience, in 2022.

The show had been workshopped at New Circle, with Willie C. Carpenter (Reasonable Doubts) as Baze and Brian Tarantina (The Marvelous Mrs. Maizel) as Gone. But Tarantina’s death in 2019 put Silver Lining on a back burner.

“When we workshopped it in New York,” Leavengood explains, “so many people said ‘This would make such a great small film for two stars.’”

The differences between Baze and Gone somehow highlight their similarities, he says.

“My character is so open and real, and says whatever, that it’s almost a relief being around him. He’s funny and he’s self-deprecating … somehow these guys form a friendship. They don’t ignore the fact that they’re of two different races, but also they never make a point that that’s a crucial part of the friendship that’s lasted these 40 years.

“Baze is laid back and very responsible, and highly respected in the community. He’s achieved a lot in his life beyond the band. Whereas my guy, Gone, just f–ks up time and time and time again. But they have remained friends.”

There are references throughout to the other, never-seen, members of the band. “I learned from my mentors, especially when you have offstage characters, they have to have distinctive names to register for the audience,” points out the playwright.

“If an offstage character’s name is John, it’s hard for the audience: ‘John … did we hear about him before?’ Electric Jimmy, they’ll remember.”

The staged reading (directed by Jim Sorensen) will find actors Jones and Leavengood reading from scripts.

“Neither Bob nor I are willing nor able to memorize a two-person play any more,” Leavengood chuckles. “So there’s never going to be the full production of Bob and me. So we’re saying ‘Together again for the first and last time.’”

Showtime is 7:30 p.m. both days. Find tickets at this link.