The COMPANY bursts into a flurry of movement. Then everyone
except MARK and ROGER freezes in a group upstage.)
MARK
How do you document real life
When real life is 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
And we're hungry and frozen
ROGER
Some life that we've chosen
TOGETHER
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 light up a mean blaze
(ROGER grabs one of his own posters.)
ROGER
With posters --
(MARK grabs old manuscripts.)
MARK
And screenplays
ROGER & MARK
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last year's rent
(Lights go down on the loft and go up on JOANNE JEFFERSON,
who's at the pay phone.)
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 it's 'trick')
'Welcome back to town'
Oh, I should lie down
Everything's brown
And uh -- oh
I feel sick
MARK
(At the window)
Where is he?
COLLINS
Getting dizzy
(He collapses.)
MARK & ROGER
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
How we gonna pay
Last year's rent
(MARK and ROGER stoke the fire. Crosscut to BENNY's Range
Rover.)
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
Ughhhhh--
Ughhhhh--
Ughhhhh-- I can't think
Ughhhhh--
Ughhhhh--
Ughhhhh-- I need a drink
MARK (reading from a script page)
"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 (realizing she's been cut off)
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 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
Till you're torn apart
Rent!
ROGER & OTHER HALF OF COMPANY
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
Use your camera to spar
MARK
Use your guitar
ALL
When they act tough - you call their bluff
MARK & ROGER
We're not gonna pay
MARK & ROGER W/HALF THE COMPANY
We're not gonna pay
MARK & ROGER W/OTHER HALF OF COMPANY
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
ROGER & MARK
'Cause everything is rent
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