Mark:
How do you document real life
When real life's getting more like fiction each day?
Headlines, breadlines, 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

Both:
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 if 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 turnin blue!

Mark:
You light up a mean blaze

Roger:
With posters

Mark:
And screen plays

Both:
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last year's Rent

Joanne:
Don't screen, Maureen, its me Joanne
Your substitute production manager
Hey hey hey! (did you eat?)
Don't change the subject maureen
But darling...you havn'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 its trick
Welcome back to town
I should lie down
Everything's brown
And uh oh
I feel sick!

Mark:
Where is he?

Collins:
Gettin dizzy.

Mark and Roger:
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last year's Rent!

Benny:
Allison 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 him all out in the long run.
Forces are gathering
Forces are gathering
Can't turn away
Forces are gathering

Collins:
Uhhhhhh
Uhhhhhh
Uhhhhhh - I can't think
Uhhhhhh
Uhhhhhh
Uhhhhhh - I need a drink

Mark:
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:
Hello?

Mark and Roger:
And feel the heat of the future's glow

Joanne:
Hello?

Mark:
Hello? Maureen?
You're equipment won't work?
Ok 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 the Other Half of Company:
How can you connect in an age
Where stranger's landlords, lovers, your own bloodcells
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 w/ half the company:
We're not gonna pay

Mark and Roger w/ other half the 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

Mark and Roger:
Cause Everything is RENT!!!