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 screenplay
 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 it's "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 can'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
 Forces are gathering (the music ignites the night with passionate fire)
 Forces are gathering (Maureen, I'm not a theatre person)
 Can't turn away (the narration crackles and pops with incendiary wit)
 Forces are gathering (could never be a theatre person)
 Forces are gathering (zoom in as they burn them past to the ground)
 Forces are gathering (hello?)
 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