Rent

MARK
How do you document real life
When real life's 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
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?

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?
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 year's rent?

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
I should lie down
Everything's brown and uh-oh
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 year's rent?

MARK
The music ignites the night
with passionate fire

ROGER
The narration crackles and
pops with incendiary wit

MARK
Zoom in as they burn
the past to the ground

BOTH
And feel the heat of
the future's glow

MARK
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
'Til you're torn apart,
Rent

ROGER
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 they're bluff

We're not gonna pay, we're not gonna pay
We're not gonna pay, last year's rent
This year's rent, next year's rent

Rent, rent, rent, rent, rent
We're not gonna pay rent
'Cause everything is rent