Rent

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