Arlington couple shapes New Repertory’s ‘Rent’

September 01, 2011|By Lenny Megliola, Globe Correspondent

Benjamin Evett and Kelli Edwards (center foreground) with cast members… (Essdras M Suarez/Globe…)

RENT Presented by New Repertory Theatre Sept. 4-25, at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal St., Watertown. $28-$63. 617-923-0100, www.newrep.org

You could make a case that the theatrical union of Kelli Edwards and Benjamin Evett was leading up to this.

When the Arlington couple saw that the New Repertory Theatre in Watertown had the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning “Rent’’ pegged for its new season, Evett contacted artistic director Kate Warner to express his interest in directing the iconic musical, adding, “I thought Kelli and I would be a good team.’’ Edwards is a choreographer.

Evett and Edwards were married in 1995, and as far back as they can remember, each had strong leanings toward a stage life. “I always knew I was going to be an actor,’’ says Evett. “My parents loved theater. I was always seeing plays.’’ He majored in the classics, Latin and Greek, at Harvard University in the mid-1980s.

Edwards’s mother, Margaret, danced and did community theater in high school. For Edwards, there was really no escape from a similar life. In fact, she embraced it. “I started dancing when I was 6,’’ she says.

Evett and Edwards persuaded the New Repertory’s board that they’d be right for the jobs of director and choreographer for “Rent,’’ a dance-laden show that opens its run Sunday, with shows through Sept. 25. “This is our first opportunity to deeply collaborate on every move of a performance,’’ says Evett. “It’s something we’ve wanted to do. ‘Rent’ is an interesting piece. It was such a groundbreaking show. It’s powerful and moving.’’

The challenge, Evett says, is “finding the stories and bringing them out. From a thematic point of view, it’s ultimately about the fragility of life, the uncertainty of the future, and both of those things are relative to us today.’’

“Rent,’’ based on Puccini’s “La Bohème,’’ was created by Jonathan Larson, who wrote the music and lyrics. The show centers on the lives of struggling young artists and musicians on New York’s Lower East Side. “Rent’’ opened on Broadway in 1996. When it closed in 2008, it was the ninth longest-running show ever.

Larson “created compelling, volatile characters, which makes for great theater,’’ says Evett, who had started the Actors’ Shakespeare Project in Boston and ran it for six years before leaving last year. His exit there opened the door to a freelance life in theater, which has already included acting roles at New Rep.