[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 & ROGER]
And we're hungry and frozen
Some life that we've chosen

[MARK & ROGER]
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last year's rent?

[ROGER & MARK, BOTH]
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!
[MARK & ROGER]
You light up a mean blaze
With posters--
And screenplays

[MARK & ROGER]
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last year's rent?

[TOM]
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 & TOM]
Where is he?
Getting dizzy

[MARK & ROGER]
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last year's rent?
[MARK, ROGER, BOTH]
"The music ignites the night with passionate fire"
"The narration crackles and pops with incendiary wit"
Zoom in as they burn the past to the ground
And feel the heat of the future's glow

[MARK & 1/2 of RENT CAST]
How do you leave the past behind
When it keep finding ways to get to your heart?
It reaches way down deep and tears you inside out
'Til you're torn apart
Rent

[ROGER & 1/2 of RENT CAST]
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 & MARK, All]
Use your camera to spar
Use your guitar
When they act tough, you call their bluff

[MARK & ROGER & All]
We're not gonna pay
We're not gonna pay
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 & ROGER]
'Cause everything is rent