Rent

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

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

We're hungry and frozen

Some life that we've chosen

How we gonna pay?

How we gonna pay?

How we gonna pay last year's rent?

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

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?

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!

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

Where is he?

Getting dizzy

How we gonna pay?

How we gonna pay?

How we gonna pay last year's rent?

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

"The music ignites the night with passionate fire"

Maureen, I'm not a theatre person

"The narration crackles and pops with incendiary wit"

Could never be a theatre person

Zoom in as they burn the past to the ground

Hello?

And feel the heat of the future's glow

Hello?

Hello? Maureen?

Your equipment won't work?

Okay, all right, I'll go!

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

How can you connect in an age

Where strangers, landlords, lovers

Your own blood cells betray

What binds the fabric together

When the raging, shifting winds of change

Keep ripping away

Draw a line in the sand

And then make a stand

Use your camera to spar

Use your guitar

When they act tough, you call their 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