[ROGER]
(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!
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
And we're hungry
And frozen
Some life
That we've chosen
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last year's rent
Last year's rent
We light candles
How do you start a fire
When there's nothing to burn
And it feels like
Something's stuck in your flue
How can you generate heat
When you can't feel your feet
And they're turning blue!
And they're turning blue!
You light up a mean blaze
With posters
And screenplays
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last year's rent
[JOANNE]
Don't scream, 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 oh
I feel sick
[M] Where is he?
[B] Getting dizzy
[M-R] How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last year's rent
[BENNY]
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
[M] The music ignites the night
Forces are gathering
With passionate fire
Forces are gathering
not a theatre person
[R] ''The narration crackles and
Can't turn away
Pops with incendiary wit''
Forces are gathering
[J] Could never be a
Theatre person
[M] Zoom in as they burn the
Forces are gathering
Past to the ground
Forces are gathering
[M-R] And feel the heat
Of the future's glow
[J] Hello?
[M] Hello? Maureen?
Your equipment won't work?
Okay, all right, I'll go!
[M-all] 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
[R-all] How can you connect
Rent!
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
[B] Draw a line in the sand
And then make a stand
[R] Use your camera to spar
[M] Use your guitar
[ALL] When they act tough
You call their bluff
[M-R] We're not gonna pay
[ALL] 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
[ROGER AND MARK]
'Cause everything is rent