[Mark]
How do you document real life
When real life's getting more
Like fiction each day?
Headline -- Bread-lines --
Blow my mind
And now this deadline
"Eviction or pay"
RENT!

[Roger]
How do you write a song
When the cords 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 years 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 do you generate heat
When you can't feel your feet?

[Both]
And they're turning blue

[Mark]
You light up a mean blaze

[Roger]
With posters-

[Mark]
-and screenplays!

[Both]
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last years rent?

[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- uhoh
I feel sick!

[Mark]
Where is he?

[Collins]
Getting dizzy

[Mark&Roger]
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last years rent?

[Benny : on phone]
Allison, baby, you sound sad
I can'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]
Hello?

[Mark&Roger]
And feel the heat of the future's glow

[Joanne]
Hello?

[Mark : on phone]
Hello? Maureen?
Your equipment won't work?
Okay! Alright! 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 your torn apart
RENT!

[Roger and other half]
How can you connect in an age
Where strangers, landlords, lovers,
Your own blood cells betray?

[All]
What binds the fabrics 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 tuff-
You call their bluff

[Mark&Roger]
We're not gonna pay

[Both and half of company]
We're not gonna pay

[Both and other half]
We're not gonna pay

[All]
Last years rent!
This years rent!
Next years rent!
Rent! Rent! Rent! Rent! Rent!
We're not gonna pay rent!

[Mark&Roger]
'Cause everything is rent