[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

[MARK & ROGER]
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

[MARK & ROGER]
And they're turning blue

[ROGER]
You light up a mean blaze

[MARK]
With posters

[ROGER]
And screenplays

[MARK & ROGER]
How we gonna pay?
How we gonna pay?
How we gonna pay last year's 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 its "trick"
"Welcome back to town," I should lie down
Everything's brown and, agh, 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?

[BENNY, on phone]
Allison, 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
[BENNY, on phone]
Forces are gathering
Forces are gathering
Can't turn away
Forces are gathering

[MARK]
"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

[BENNY, on phone]
Forces are gathering
Forces are gathering

[MARK]
Zoom in as they burn the past to the ground

[JOANNE, on phone]
Hello?

[MARK & ROGER]
And feel the heat of the future's glow

[JOANNE, on phone]
Hello?

[MARK, on phone]
Hello? Maureen?
Your equipment won't work?
Okay, all right, I'll go!

[MARK, 1/2 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
'Til you're torn apart
Rent

[ROGER, 1/2 of COMPANY]
How can you connect in an age
Where strangers, landlords, lovers
Your own blood cells betray

[COMPANY]
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

[COMPANY]
When they act tough, you call their bluff

[MARK & ROGER]
We're not gonna pay

[MARK, ROGER, & 1/2 THE COMPANY]
We're not gonna pay

[MARK, ROGER, & OTHER 1/2]
We're not gonna pay

[COMPANY]
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