Lyrics of 'Rent' by Jonathan Larson

The COMPANY bursts into a flurry of movement.]
[Then everyone except MARK and ROGER freezes in a group upstage.]

[MARK]
How do you document real life
When real life is getting more
Like fiction each day
Headlines -- bread-lines
Blow my mind
And now this deadline
"Eviction -- or pay"
Rent!

[ROGER]
How do you write a song
When the chords sound wrong
Though they once sounded right and rare
When the notes are sour
Where is the power
You once had to ignite the air

[MARK]
And we're hungry and frozen

[ROGER]
Some life that we've chosen

[TOGETHER]
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last year's rent

[MARK]
We light candles

[ROGER]
How do you start a fire
When there's nothing to burn
And it feels like something's stuck in your flue

[MARK]
How can you generate heat
When you can't feel your feet

[BOTH]
And they're turning blue!

[MARK]
You light up a mean blaze
[ROGER grabs one of his own posters.]
[ROGER]

With posters --
[MARK grabs old manuscripts.]
[MARK]
And screenplays

[ROGER AND MARK]
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last year's rent

[Lights go down on the loft and go up on JOANNE JEFFERSON,]
[who's at the pay phone.]

[JOANNE]
[On phone]
Don't screen, Maureen
It's me -- Joanne
Your substitute production manager
Hey hey hey! (Did you eat?)
Don't change the subject Maureen
But darling -- you haven't eaten all day
You won't throw up
You won't throw up
The digital delay ---
Didn't blow up (exactly)
There may have been one teeny tiny spark
You're not calling Mark

[COLLINS]
How do you stay on your feet
When on every street
It's 'trick or treat'
(And tonight it's 'trick')
'Welcome back to town'
Oh, I should lie down
Everything's brown
And uh -- oh
I feel sick

[MARK]
[At the window]
Where is he?

[COLLINS]
Getting dizzy
[He collapses.]

[MARK AND ROGER]
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last year's rent

[MARK and ROGER stoke the fire. Crosscut to BENNY's Range Rover.]

BENNY
[On cellular phone]
Alison baby -- you sound sad
I don't believe those two after everything I've done
Ever since our wedding I'm dirt -- They'll see
I can help them all out in the long run

[Three locales: JOANNE at the pay phone,]
[MARK and ROGER in their loft, and COLLINS on the ground.]
[The following is sung simultaneously.]

[BENNY]
Forces are gathering
Forces are gathering
Can't turn away
Forces are gathering

[COLLINS]
Ughhhhh--
Ughhhhh--
Ughhhhh-- I can't think
Ughhhhh--
Ughhhhh--
Ughhhhh-- I need a drink

[MARK (reading from a script page)]
"The music ignites the night with passionate fire"

[JOANNE]
Maureen -- I'm not a theatre person

[ROGER]
"The narration crackles and pops with incendiary wit"

[JOANNE]
Could never be a theatre person

[MARK]
Zoom in as they burn the past to the ground

[JOANNE (realizing she's been cut off)]
Hello?

[MARK AND ROGER]
And feel the heat of the future's glow

[JOANNE]
Hello?

[The phone rings in the loft. MARK picks it up.]

[MARK]
[On phone]
Hello? Maureen?
--Your equipment won't work?
Okay, all right, I'll go!

[MARK AND HALF OF COMPANY]
How do you leave the past behind
When it keeps finding ways to get to your heart
It reaches way down deep and tears you inside out
Till you're torn apart
Rent!

[ROGER AND OTHER HALF OF COMPANY]
How can you connect in an age
Where strangers, landlords, lovers
Your own blood cells betray

[ALL]
What binds the fabric together
When the raging, shifting winds of change
Keep ripping away

[BENNY]
Draw a line in the sand
And then make a stand

[ROGER]
Use your camera to spar

[MARK]
Use your guitar

[ALL]
When they act tough - you call their bluff

[MARK AND ROGER]
We're not gonna pay

[MARK AND ROGER WITH HALF OF COMPANY]
We're not gonna pay

[MARK AND ROGER WITH OTHER HALF OF COMPANY]
We're not gonna pay

[ALL]
Last year's rent
This year's rent
Next year's rent
Rent rent rent rent rent
We're not gonna pay rent

[ROGER AND MARK]
'Cause everything is rent