RENT lyrics
Mark: How do you document real life when real life is getting more like fiction each day?Headlines - breadlines blow my mind and now this deadline "Eviction - or pay" RENT.
Roger: How do you write a song when the cords 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 lives that we've chosen.
Both: 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 can light up a mean blaze
Roger: With posters-
Mark: And screenplays
Both: How we gonna pay, how we gonna pay, how we gonna pay...Last Year's RENT?
Joanne: 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. Your 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," I should lie down. Everything's brown and uh-oh. I feel sick.
Mark: Where is he?
Collins: Getting dizzy.
Both: 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.
Benny: Forces are gathering. forces are gathering. Can't turn away. Forces are gathering.
Collins: Ughhhh- ughhhh- ughhhh- I can't think. Ughhhh- ughhhh- ughhhh- I need a drink.
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.
Mark: Zoom in as they burn the past to the ground.
Joanne: Hello?
Mark & Roger: And feel the heat of the future's glow.
Joanne: Hello?
Mark: Hello? Maureen? Your equipment won't work? Okay, all right, I'll go!
Mark & Half of the 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 your torn apart. RENT!
Roger & Other Half of the 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 & Half the company: We're not gonna pay
Mark, Roger & Other half of the company: 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!
Roger: I'm writing one great song before I...One song, glory, one song, before I go. Glory, one song to leave behind.Find one song, one last refrain, glory, from the pretty-boy front man.Who wasted opportunity. One song. He had the world at his feet, glory,in the eyes of a young girl, a young girl. Find glory, beyond the cheap colored lights.One song before the sun sets. Glory - on another empty life. Time flies - time dies. Glory - one blaze of glory. One blaze of glory - glory. Find glory. In a song that rings true.Truth like a blazing fire. An eternal flame. Find one song, a song about love.Glory, from the soul of a young man, a young man.Find the one song before the virus takes hold. Glory, like a sunset. One song to redeem this empty life.Time flies and then - no need to endure anymore...Time dies.
Mimi: Got a light?
Roger: I know you - you're - You're shivering.
Mimi:It's nothing they turned off my heat. And I'm just a little weak on my feet. Would you light my candle? What are you staring at?
Roger: Nothing. your hair in the moonlight. You look familiar.Can you make it?
Mimi: Just haven't eaten much today. At least the room stopped spinning anyway. What?
Roger: Nothing, your smile reminded me of-
Mimi: I always remind people of - who is she?
Roger: She died. Her name was April.
Mimi: It's out again. Sorry about your friend. Would you light my candle?
Roger: Well-
Mimi: Yeah. Ow.
Roger: Oh. The wax -it's-
Mimi: Dripping! I like it -between my-
Roger: Fingers. I figured...oh, well. Goodnight. It blew out again?
Mimi: No- I think that I dropped my stash.
Roger: I know I've seen you out and about, when I used to go out. your candle's out.
Mimi: I'm illin' - I had it when I walked in the door. It was pure - is it on the floor?
Roger: The floor?
Mimi: They say that I have the best ass below 14th street. Is it true?
Roger: What?
Mimi: You're staring again.
Roger: Oh no, I mean you do - have a nice - I mean - you look familiar.
Mimi: Like your dead girlfriend?
Roger: Only when you smile. But I'm sure I've seen you somewhere else-
Mimi: Do you go to the Cat Scratch Club? That's where I work - dance - Help me look.
Roger: Yes! They use to tie you up-
Mimi: It's a living.
Roger: I didn't recognize you without the handcuffs.
Mimi: We could light the candle. Oh won't you light the candle?
Roger: Why don't you forget that stuff, you look like you're sixteen.
Mimi: I'm nineteen- but I'm old for my age. I'm just born to be bad.
Roger: I once was born to be bad. I use to shiver like that.
Mimi: I have no heat - I told you.
Roger: I used to sweat.
Mimi: I got a cold.
Roger: Uh-huh. I used to be a junkie.
Mimi: But now and then I like to-
Roger: Uh-huh.
Mimi: Feel good.
Roger: wanna dance?
Roger: With you?
Mimi: No - with my father.
Roger: I'm Roger.
Mimi: They call me...they call me Mimi.
Roger: Who do you think you are? Barging in on me an my guitar. Little girl - hey, the door is that way. You better go, you know the fire's out anyway. Take your powder - take your candle, your sweet whisper I just can't handle. Well take your hair in the moonlight, your brown eyes - goodbye, goodnight. I should tell you, I should - No! Another time - another place. Our temperature would climb, there'd be a long embrace. We'd do another dance, it'd be another play. Looking for romance? Come back another day. Another day.
Mimi: The heart may freeze or it can burn. The pain will ease if I can learn. There is no future, there is no past. I live this moment as my last. There's only us, there's only this forget regret or life is yours miss. No other road, no other way, no day but today.
Roger: Excuse me if I'm off track, but if your so wise, then tell me - why do you need smack? Take your needle, take your fancy prayer, and don't forget, get the moonlight out of your hair. Long ago - you might've lit up my heart. But the fire's dead - ain't never gonna start. Another time - another place. The words would only rhyme we'd be in outer space. It'd be another song, we'd sing another way. You wanna prove me wrong? Come back another day!
Mimi: There's only yes, only tonight. We must let go, to know what's right. No other course, no other way, no day but today.
Angel: Live in my house. I'll be your shelter. Just pay me back with one thousand kisses. Be my lover - I'll cover you.
Collins: Open your door. I'll be your shelter. Don't got much baggage to lay at your feet. But sweet kisses I've got to spare. I'll be there - I'll cover you.
Both: I think they meant it when they said you can't buy love. Now I know you can rent it. A new lease you are, my love, on life - be my life.Just slip me on, I'll be your blanket. Wherever - whenever - I'll be your coat.
Angel: You'll be my king, and I'll be your castle.
Collins: No, you'll by queen and I'll be your moat.
Both: I think they meant it when they said you can't buy love. Now I know you can rent it. A new lease you are, my love, on life. All my life I've longed to discover something as true as this is.
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Both: Oh lover I'll cover you. Oh lover I'll cover you.
Mark: To days of inspiration, playing hookie, making something out of nothing, the need to express - to communicate, to going against the grain, going insane, going mad. To loving tension, no pension, to more than one dimension, to starving for attention, hating convention, hating pretension, not to mention of course, hating dear old Mom and Dad. To riding your bike midday past the three-piece suits - to fruits - to no absolutes - to Absolut - to choice - to the Village Voice - to any passing fad. To being an us - for once - instead of a them -
All: La Vie Boheme. La Vie Boheme.
Maureen: Is the equipment in a pyramid?
Joanne: It is Maureen.
Maureen: The mixer doesn't have a case. Don't give me that face.
Mr. Grey: Ahhemm!
Maureen: Hey Mister, she's my sister.
Waiter: So that's five miso soup, four seaweed salad, three soy burger dinner, two tofu dog platter and one pasta with meatless balls...
Boy: Ugh
Collins: It tastes the same.
Mimi: If you close your eyes.
Waiter: and thirteen orders of fries. Is that it here?
All: Wine and beer!
Mimi & Angel: To handcrafted beers made in local breweries. To yoga, to yogurt, to rice and beans and chees. To leather, to dildos, to curry vindaloo, to huevos rancheros and Maya Angelou.
Maureen & Collins: Emotion, devotion, to causing a commotion, creation, vacation...
Mark: Mucho Masturbation!
Maureen & Collins: Compassion, to fashion, to passion when it's new.
Collins: To Sontag.
Angel: To Sondheim.
Four People: To anything taboo.
Collins & Roger: Ginsberg, Dylan, Cunningham & Cage
Collins: Lenny Bruce
Roger: Langston Hughs
Maureen: To the stage!
Person #1: To Uta
Person #2: To Buddha
Person #3: Pablo Neruda, too.
Mark & Mimi: Why Dorothy & Toto went over the rainbow. To blow off Auntie Em!
All: La Vie Boheme!
Maureen: And wipe the speakers off before you pack.
Joanne: Yes Maureen.
Maureen: Well, hurry back.
Mr. Grey: Sisters?
Maureen: We're close
Angel, Collins, Maureen, Mark & Mr. Grey: Brothers!
Mark, Angel, Mimi, & Three Others: Bisexuals, trisexuals, homo sapiens. Carcinogens, hallucinogens, men, Pee-Wee Herman. German wine, turpentine, Gertrude Stein. Antonioni, Bertolucci, Kurosawa, "Carmina Burana."
All: To apathy, to entropy, to empathy, ecstasy. Vaclav Havel - The Sex Pistols, 8BC, to no shame - never playing the fame game.
Collins: To marijuana!
All: To sodomy, it's between God and me. To S & M.
Benny: Waiter...waiter...waiter.
All: La Vie Boheme.
Collins: In honor of the death of Bohemia, an impromptu salon will commence immediately following dinner... Mimi Marquez, clad only in bubble wrap, will perform her famous lawn-chair-handcuff dance to the sound of iced tea being stirred.
Roger: Mark Cohen will preview his new documentary about his inability to hold an erection on the high holy days.
Mark: And Maureen Johnson, back from her spectacular one=night engagement at the 11th street lot, will sing Native American tribal chants, backwards through her vocoder, while accompanying herself on the electric cello, which she has never studied.Roger will attempt to write a bittersweet, evocative song.That doesn't remind us of "Musetta's Waltz"
Collins: Angel Dumott Schunard will model the latest fall fashions from Paris while accompanying herself on the ten gallon plastic pickle-tub.
Angel: And Collins will recount his exploits as an anarchist - including the tale of his successful programming of the MIT virtual-reality equipment to self-destruct as it broadcast the words:
All: "Actual Reality - ACT UP - fight AIDS"
Joanne: And you should see, they've padlocked your building and they're rioting on Avenue B. Benny called the cops.
Maureen: That fuck
Joanne: They don't know what they're doing. The cops are sweeping the lot. Bot no one's leaving, they're sitting there, mooing!
All: Yea!!!To dance!
Girl: No way to make a living, masochism, pain, perfection, muscle spasms, chiropractors, short careers, eating disorders.
All: Film
Mark: Adventure, tendium, no family, boring locations, darkrooms, perfect faces, egos, money, Hollywood and sleaze.
All: Music
Angel: Food of love, emotion, mathematics, isolation, rhythm, power, feeling, harmony, and heavy competition.
All: Anarchy
Maureen & Collins: Revolution, justice, screaming for solutions, forcing changes, risk and danger, making noise and making pleas.
All: To faggots, lezzies, dykes, cross-dressers too.
Maureen: To me.
Mark: To me.
Collins & Angel: To me.
All: To you, and you, and you, you and you. To people living with, living with, living with, not dying from disease. Let he among us without sin, be the first to condemn - La Vie Boheme, La Vie Boheme, La Vie Boheme.
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Company: Five Hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes. Five
Hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear. Five Hundred twenty-five thousand six
hundred minutes. How do you measure - measure a year? In daylights - in sunsets - in
midnights - in cups of coffee. In inches - in miles, in laughter - in strife. In - Five Hundred
twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes. How do you measure a year in the life? How
about love? How about love? How about love? Seasons of love. Seasons of love. Soloist #1: Five Hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes. Five
Hundred twenty-five thousand journeys to plan. Five Hundred twenty-five thousand six
hundred minutes. How do you measure the life of a woman or a man? Soloist #2: In truths that she learned, or times that he cried. In bridges he burned,
or the way the she died? Company: It's time now - to sing out, Tho' the story never ends. Let's celebrate,
remember a year in the life of friends. Remember the love. Remember the love.
Remember the love. Measure in love. Soloist #1: Measure, measure your life in love. Seasons of love, seasons of
love.Seasons of Love
What You Own
Mark: Don't breathe too deep. Don't think all day. Dive into work. Drive the otehr way. That drip of hurt. That pint of shame. goes away, just play the game. You're living in America at the end of the millennium. You're living in America, leave your conscience at the tone. And when you're living in America at the end of the end of the millennium, you're what you own.
Roger: The filmaker can not see.
Mark: And the songwriter can not hear.
Roger: Yet I see Mimi everywhere.
Mark: Angel's voice is in my ear.
Roger: Just tighten those shoulders.
Mark: Just clench your jaw 'til you frown.
Roger: Just don't let go
Both: Or you might drown. You're living in America at the end of the millenium. You're living in America, where it's like the Twilight Zone. And when you're living in America, at the end of the millenium, you're what you own. So I own not a notion. I escape and ape content. I don't own emotion - I RENT.
Roger What was it about that night? What was it about that night?
Both: Connection - in an isolating age.
Roger For once the shadows gave way to light. For once the shadows gave way to light.
Both: For Once I didn't disengage.
Mark: Angel - I hear you - I hear it. I see it - I see it. My film!
Roger: Mimi I see you - I see it. I hear it - I hear it. My song!
Roger Alexi - Mark One song - Glory Call me a Mimi hypocrite Your eyes I need to finish my film I quit!
Both: Dying in America. At the end of the millenium. We're dying in America. To come into our own. But when you're dying in America, at the end of the millenium you're not alone, I'm not alone. I'm not alone.
Roger: Your eyes. As we said our goodbyes. Can't them out of my mind. And I find I can't hide (from) your eyes. The ones that took me by surprise. The night you came into my life. Where there's moonlight I see your eyes. How'd I let you slip away, when I'm longing so to hold you. Now I'd die for one more day 'Cause there's something I should have told you. Yes there's something I should have told you, when I looked into your eyes. Why does distance make us wise? You were the song all along, and before the song dies I should tell you