The dancer and stage actor makes his debut on TV and feature film projects.
Tony Award-winning dancer/actor David Alvarez is now adding Hollywood to his Broadway career. He’s made his TV dramatic debut in Showtime’s new murder mystery series American Rust, which premiered this month. Later this year Alvarez will make his feature film debut in Steven Spielberg’s remake of the musical West Side Story.
Acting may have been on the cards of the 27-year-old Canadian-born artist for some time. “Ever since I was a young kid, I always had this secret passion for acting, and I thought it was a way of expressing myself that I couldn’t find in the same way in dance,” said Alvarez at a recent press conference, discussing the recent, significant evolution in his career. “I’ve tried many different things in my life to see what I want to do besides dancing, but I think acting is that rare art form that resonates with me.”
The Cuban-Canadian actor came to the performing arts fairly naturally. His mother Yanek Gonzalez is an actress and theater director; his father David Alvarez-Carbonell is a professor of biology and chemistry. “My parents gave me the freedom to be curious, that life is an act, and you’re just constantly evolving and changing,” he states. “And you do that for your characters as well. So, I find it fascinating. And I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to transition with American Rust.”
Alvarez plays teenager Isaac English in the Showtime TV series, co-starring alongside Jeff Daniels, Maura Tierney, Mark Pellegrino, Alex Neustaedter and Julia Mayorga. The series premiered on September 12.
His character Isaac is one of a group of youths living in an economically devastated Pennsylvania steel town, where a murder has been committed. A compromised chief of police (Daniels) is forced to decide how far he’s willing to go when the son of the woman he loves (Tierney) is accused of the crime. The action takes a harrowing journey into the lives of the inhabitants of a small town with big secrets.
Neustaedter plays Billy, the suspected murderer, while there’s a lateral subplot involving Mayorga’s character Lee, a frustrated young Latinx woman who finds herself moving back to a white, working-class town following the death of her mother. In the meantime, she must contend with her mother’s ailing husband and her relentlessly somber brother, Alvarez’s Isaac.
The three actors suggested they’ve become wiser playing his American Rust characters.
“The three of us are young in this project,” said Alvarez. “The characters we play are capable of making mistakes that can cause significant damage to the rest of their lives. That’s why each decision they make throughout the season is really important.” He added, “I’ve come to feel that being very aware of the decisions and actions we make as actors will also impact the rest of our stories, our own personal journeys and who we become as people.”
“I agree with David,” said Mayorga. “I believe people think that when you’re young, you can make all these mistakes and you can fix it in the future or get away with it. I don’t think that. I think it follows you and you can’t get rid of it. Maybe the truth comes out. I think we have to be mindful of the consequences, even (at) this young age, of what we do.”
Alvarez is recognized as one of America’s finest young dancers and as one of the original Billys in the Broadway production Billy Elliot, the coming-of-age musical for which he earned a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical. At the age of 12, he was one of the youngest performers to win the award, which he shared with the other two original Billys.
Upon becoming an adult, Alvarez served in the U.S. Army and later attended college. It was at school that the dancer was spotted by a casting director for Spielberg’s upcoming remake of West Side Story. Alvarez was selected to play Bernardo, the leader of the Puerto Rican street gang The Sharks. The movie is scheduled to release Dec. 10.
Alvarez is closed-lipped about the highly anticipated debut of West Side Story–Spielberg’s take on the Romeo & Juliet-inspired tale which will be the acclaimed director’s first musical, having teamed with frequent collaborator and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Tony Kushner. Asked how he feels about taking on the role that won George Chakiris a Best Supporting Actor role, Alvarez just shrugs, “I continue to train at ABA (American Ballet Academy). We’ll see how it goes.”
Featured Photo: Alex Neustaedter, left, as Billy Poe and David Alvarez as Isaac English in ‘American Rust (Credit: Dennis Mong/Showtime)