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