Rent (musical)

Rent (1996) is a rock musical, with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's classic opera La Bohème. One of the longest running shows on Broadway, Rent was the winner of the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Obie Award, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, four Tony Awards and three Drama Desk awards. A film adaptation of it was made in 2005. The broadway show had all events from the first act take place within a single night, while the movie version has it span over several days.

• • Tune Up 1
• (Mark) December 24th, 9:00PM, eastern standard time. From here on in, I shoot without a script. See if anything comes of it, instead of my old shit. First shot Roger, tuning the Fender guitar he hasn't played in a year.
• (Roger) This won't tune!
• (Mark) So we hear.
• (Mark) He's just coming back from half a year of withdrawal.
• (Roger) You talking to me?
• (Mark) Not at all. Are you ready? Hold that focus steady, tell the folks at home what you're doing, Roger.
• (Roger) I'm writing one great song before I
• (Mark) The phone rings. (Roger) Saved! (Mark) We screen, zoom in on the answering machine.
  • Tune Up 2
• (Mark) Tell the folks at home what you're doing, Roger.
• (Roger) I'm writing one last song-
• (Mark) The phone rings! (Roger) Yes! (Mark) We screen...
• (Collins) Chestnuts roasting- (Mark and Roger) Collins! (Collins) I'm downstairs. (Mark) Hey! (Collins) Roger picked up the phone? (Mark) No it's me. (Collins) Throw down the keys. (Mark) A wild night is now preordained. (Collins) I may be detained.
• (Mark) What? What do you mean detained?
• (Benny) Hohoho! (Mark) Benny! (Roger and Mark) Shit! (Benny) Dudes on my way. (Roger and Mark) Great! Fuck! (Benny) I need the rent! (Mark) What rent? (Benny) This past year's rent which I let slide. (Mark) Let slide? You said we were golden! (Roger) When you bought the building, (Mark) When we were roommates? Remember? You lived here. (Benny) How could I forget? You, me, Collins, and Maureen. How is the drama queen? (Mark) She's performing tonight. (Benny and Mark trading off) I know. Still her production manager? Two days ago I was bumped. You still dating her? Last month I was dumped. (Roger) She's in love. (Benny) She got a new man? (Mark) Well, no. (Benny) What's his name? (Mark and Roger) Joanne. (Benny) Rent, my amigos, is due, or I will have to evict you. Be there in a few.
• (Mark) The power blows!
  • Tune Up 3
• (Mark spoken) Don't suppose you'd like to come see Maureen's show in the lot tonight, or come to dinner?
• (Roger spoken) Zoom in on my empty wallet.
• (Mark spoken) Touché. Take your AZT. (sung) Close on Roger, his girlfriend April left a note saying, "We've got AIDS," before slitting her wrists in the bathroom.

• (Mark) How do you document real life when real life's getting more like fiction each day. Headline, breadlines, 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!
• (Joanne) Have you eaten today? 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!
• (Mark) Where is he? (Collins) Getting dizzy.
• (All) How we gonna pay last year's rent?
• (Mark) The music ignites the night with passion and fire. (Joanne) Maureen, I'm not a theater person! (Roger) The narration crackles and pops with incendiary wit.
• (Mark) Zoom in as they burn the past to the ground, and feel the heat of the future's glow!
• (All) 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 do 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?
• (Benny) Draw a line in the sand and then make a stand! (Roger) Use your camera to spar! (Mark) Use your guitar!
• (All) 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!

• (Benny) Maureen is protesting losing her performance space—not my attitude.
• (Roger) What happened to Benny, what happened to his heart? And the ideals he once pursued?
• (Benny) And the owner of that lot next door has the right to do with it as he pleases.
• (Collins) Happy birthday Jesus.
• (Benny) The rent! (Mark) You're wasting your time. (Roger) We're broke. (Mark) And you broke your word. This is absurd!
• (Benny) I'll forgo your rent and on paper guarantee that you can stay here for free, (spoken) if you do me one small favor.
• (Mark spoken) What? (Benny spoken) Convince Maureen to cancel her protest. (Mark spoken) Why not just get an injunction or call the cops? (Benny spoken) I did and they're on standby.
• (Benny) But my investors would rather I handle this quietly.
• (Roger) You can't quietly wipe off a tent city then watch, "It's a Wonderful Life" on TV!
• (Benny) You want to produce films and write songs? You need somewhere to do it. It's what we used to dream about! Think twice before you pooh-pooh it.
• (Benny) You'll see boys. You'll see boys. You'll see, the beauty of a studio that lets us do our work and get paid. With condos on the top. Whose rent keeps open our shops. Just stop the protest and you'll have it made. You'll see... or you'll pack!
• (Angel) That boy needs some Prozac. (Roger) Or heavy drugs. (Mark) Or group hugs.
• (Collins) Which reminds me, we have a detour to make. Anyone who wants to can come along!
• (Mark) First I've got a protest to save!
• (Angel) Roger?
• (Roger) I'm not much company you'll find.
• (Mark) Behave!
• (Angel) Just catch up later, he's just got other things on his mind. You'll see boys, you'll see boys.
• (Collins) I like boys.
• (Angel) Boys like me.
• (All) We'll see.

• (Joanne) This is weird.
• (Mark) It's weird.
• (Joanne) Very weird.
• (Mark) Fucking weird.
• (Joanne) I'm so mad that I don't know what to do. Fighting with microphones, freezing down to my bones, and to top it all off, I'm with you.
• (Mark) Feel like going insane, got a fire in your brain, and you're thinking of drinking gasoline?
• (Joanne) As a matter of fact...
• (Mark) Honey, I know this act. It's called "The Tango: Maureen."
• (Mark) The Tango: Maureen—it's a dark, dizzy merry-go-round. As she keeps you dangling, (Joanne) You're wrong. (Mark) Your heart she is mangling. (Joanne) It's different with me.
• (Mark) And you toss and you turn, 'cause her cold eyes can burn. Yet you yearn and you churn and rebound.
• (Joanne) Did you swoon when she walked through the door? (Mark) Every time! So be cautious. (Joanne) Did she moon over other boys?(Mark) More than moon! (Joanne) I'm getting nauseous.
• (Mark spoken)Where'd you learn to tango? (Joanne spoken)With the French Ambassador's daughter in her dorm room at Miss Porter's. And you?
• (Mark spoken) With Nanette Himmelfarb, the rabbi's daughter, at the Scarsdale Jewish Community Center.
• (Mark spoken)It's hard to do this backwards! (Joanne) You should try it in heels.
• (Joanne) She cheated! (Mark) She cheated! (Joanne) Maureen cheated! (Mark) Fucking cheated!
• (Joanne) I'm defeated; I should give up right now.
• (Mark) Gotta look on the bright side with all of your might!
• (Joanne) I'd fall for her still anyhow.
• (Mark and Joanne) When your dancing her dance, you don't stand a chance; her grip of romance makes you fall.
• (Mark) And you think, "Might as well... (Joanne) Dance a tango to hell!" (Mark) At least I'll have tangoed at all.

• (Roger)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 take hold, Glory, like a sunset, One song to redeem this, empty life. Time flies, and no need to endure anymore! Time dies!

(knock knock knock) The door...

• (Roger) What'd you forget?
• (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. Can you make it?
• (Mimi) Just haven't eaten much today, at least the room's 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: Would you light my candle?

• Roger: Oh, the wax, it's...
  Mimi: Dripping! I like it between my -
  Roger: Fingers! I figured. Oh well, good night.

• Mimi: They say 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...

• Roger: Cold hands.
  Mimi: Yours too. Big—like my father's. You wanna dance?
  Roger: With you?
  Mimi: No—with my father!
  Roger: I'm Roger.
  Mimi: They call me, they call me, Mimi.

• Gentlemen, our benefactor on this Christmas Eve, whose charity is only matched by talent, I believe. A new member of the Alphabet City Avant-Garde: Angel Dumott Schunard!
  • In the film version, this line is slightly altered to "Gentlemen, our benefactor on this Christmas Day, whose charity is only matched by talent, I must say..."

• Angel: Today for you, tomorrow for me!
  Collins: And you should hear her beat!
  Mark: You earned this on the street?!
  Angel: It was my lucky day today on Avenue A, when a lady in a limousine drove my way. She said, "Darling, be a dear, haven't slept in a year, I need your help to make my neighbor's yappy dog disappear! This akita, Evita, just won't shut up! I believe if you play nonstop, that pup will breathe its very last high-strung breath! I'm certain that cur will bark itself to death!"

• Angel: We agreed on a fee, a thousand-dollar guarantee, tax-free—and a bonus, if I trimmed her tree. Now who could foretell that it would go so well? But sure as I am here that dog is now in doggie hell! After an hour, Evita, in all her glory, on the window ledge of that 23^rd story, like Thelma and Louise did when they got the blues, swan dove into the Courtyard of the Gracie Mews.

• Angel: Then back on the street where I met my sweet, where he was moaning and groaning on the cold concrete, the nurse took him home for some mercurochrome, and I dressed his wounds and got him back on his feet.

• (Mimi is the only singer the entire song) What's the time? Well it's gotta be close to midnight. My body's talking to me: says "time for danger."
• Wanna put on a tight skirt and flirt with a stanger.
• I've had a knack, from way back, of breaking the rules once I learn the game.
• We don't need any money, I can always get in for free. You can get in too, if you get in with me.
• Take me out tonight. Meow. HA!
• When I get a wink for the doorman. Do you know how lucky you'll be? You're on line with a feline on Avenue B!
• In the evening, I've got to roam. Can't sleep in the city of neon and chrome. Feels to damn much like home, where the Spanish babies cry. So let's find a bar so dark we forget where we are. From all the scars from the nevers and maybes. Die!
• Don't forsake me. Out tonight!
• I'll let you make me! Out tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight!

(Goes straight into Another Day)

• (Roger) Who do you think you are? Barging in on me and my guitar. Little girl, hey! The door is that way! You better go you know the fires out anyway. Take your powder take your candle. You're a sweet whisper I just can't handle! And take your hair in the moonlight your brown eyes. Goodbye goodnight!
• (Roger) I should tell you I should tell you. I should tell you I should tell you. I should tell you I should. No! Another time, another place. Our temperatures only rise. There'd be a long embrace. We'd do another dance it'd be another day. You want to prove me wrong? Come back another day. Another day!
• (Mimi)There is no future, there is no past. I live this moment as my last.

• (Mimi) Forget regret, or life is yours to miss.

• (Mimi) No other road, no other way, no day but today.

• (Mimi) I trust my soul. My only goal is just to be.

• (Mimi) Give in to love, or live in fear.

• (Roger) Excuse me if I'm off track, but if you're so wise, then tell me: Why do you need smack?

• (Roger) Long ago, you might've lit up my heart. But the fire's dead, ain't never ever gonna start.

• 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 to miss. No other road, no other way, no day but today.

• There's only now, there's only here. Give in to love, or live in fear. No other path, no other way, no day but today.

• Roger: The fire's out anyway.
  Group: No day but today.
  Roger: Take your powder, take your candle.
  Group: No day but today.
  Roger: Take your brown eyes, your pretty smile, your silhouette.
  Group: No day but today.
  Roger: Another time, another place, another rhyme, a warm embrace.

• So with a thousand sweet kisses I'll cover you.

• Oh lover, I'll cover you, ya ya ya ya ya ya, Oh lover, I'll cover you.

• Five hundred, twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes, five hundred, twenty-five thousand seasons of love.

• 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.

• I've longed to discover something as true as this is

• Live in my house, I'll be your shelter, just pay me back with one thousand kisses. Be my lover, and I'll cover you.

• When your heart has expired

• You'll be my king and I'll be your castle. No you be my queen and I'll be your moat.

• Open your door, I'll be your tenant. Don't got much baggage to lay at your feet. But sweet kisses I've got to spare, I'll be there and I'll cover you.

• The only way out is up. A leap of faith...

• Last night I had a dream. I found myself in a desert called Cyberland. It was hot. My canteen had sprung a leak and I was thirsty. Out of the abyss walked a cow — Elsie. I asked if she had anything to drink. She said, "I'm forbidden to produce milk. In Cyberland, we only drink... Diet Coke."

• I gotta get out of here! It's like I'm being tied to the hood of a yellow rental truck, being packed in with fertilizer and fuel oil, pushed over a cliff by a suicidal Mickey Mouse!

• "MOO! Moo with me. Please, sir, could you give me a little moo?" (off-stage man) "MOO!" "Yes. YES! MOO WITH ME!! YES!!! YES, IT SOUNDS BEAUTIFUL!! LET ME HEAR YOU, NEW YORK CITY!! MOO WITH ME!!"

• They make fun, yet I am the one attempting to do some good. Or do you really want a neighborhood where people piss on your stoop every night? Bohemia, bohemia's a fallacy in your head. This is Calcutta; Bohemia is dead.

• Dearly beloved, we gather here to say our goodbyes. Here she lies. No one knew her worth; the late great daughter of Mother Earth on these nights (this night in the Broadway play) when we celebrate the birth in that little town of Bethlehem. We raise our glass, you bet your ass to La Vie Boheme.

• To days of inspiration, playing hooky, making something out of nothing, the need to express, to communicate. To going against the grain, going insane, going mad!

• To riding your bikes miday past the three piece suits. To fruits to no absolutes to absolutes to choice to The Village Voice to any passing fad. To being an us for once. Instead of on them! La Vie Boheme!

• To yoga, to yogurt, to rice and beans and cheese. To leather, to dildos, to curry vindaloo. To huevos rancheros, and Maya Angelou!

• Emotion, devotion to causing a commotion. Creation, vacation... Mucho Masterbation.

• Why Dorothy and Toto went over the rainbow to blow off Auntie Em!

• Let he among us without sin be the first to condemn La Vie Bohème!

• Bisexuals, trisexuals, Homo Sapiens, carcinogens, hallucinogens, men, Peewee Herman, German wine, turpentine, Gertrude Stein, Antonioni, Bertolucci, Kurosawa, Carmina Burana, to apathy to entropy to empathy, ecstacy, Vaclàv Havel, The Sex Pistols, 8BC, to no shame never playin' the fame game...to marijuana! To sodomy, it's between God and me, to S&M. La Vie Boheme.

• TO DANCE! No way to make a living, masochism, pain, perfection, muscle spasms, chiropractors, short careers, eating disorders! FILM! Adventure, tedium, no family, boring locations, dark rooms, perfect faces, egos, money, Hollywood, and sleaze! MUSIC! Food of love, emotion, mathematics, isolation, rhythm, feeling, power, harmony, and heavy competition! ANARCHY! Revolution, justice screaming for solutions, voicing changes, risk and danger, making noise and making pleas!

• To faggots, lezzies, dykes, cross dressers, too. To me, to me, to you and you and you, you, and you. To people living with, living with, living with, NOT DYING from disease!

• Anyone out of the mainstream; is anyone in the mainstream? Anyone alive with a sex drive! Tear down the wall; aren't we all? The opposite of war isn't peace — it's creation.

• Viva la vie boheme!

• I couldn't crack the love code, dear, 'till you made the lock of my heart explode- it's gonna be a happy new year.

• Friendship is thicker than blood.

• I was a Boy Scout once and a Brownie, until some brat got scared.

• I think I should be laughing. Yet I forget. Forget how to begin. I'm feeling something inside. And yet I still I can't decide if I should hide or make a wide open grin.

• Rope! You can hoist a line. To the fire escape. And tie off that... that bench. I can't take them as chums. Start hoisting, wench.

• Last week, I wanted just to disappear. My life was dust. But now it just may be. A happy new year.

• Bond. James Bond. And Pussy Galore. In person. Pussy! You came prepared.

• Aha. Money penny. My martini. Will bad champagne do? Uh. That's shaken. Not stirred.

• Where's everyone else? Playing Spiderman.

• (Collins) You're drunk!
  • (Angel) No I'm not!

• (Mark) Maureen! Stop! This is NOT my bar mitzvah!

• Take me for what I am, who I was meant to be and if you give a damn, take me baby or leave me.

• A tiger in a cage can never see the sun. This diva needs her stage, baby, let's have fun!

• No way, can I be what I'm not. But, hey, don't you want your girl hot?

• 'Cause every night who's in your bed?

• There will always be women in rubber flirting with me!

• Kiss pookie.

• So be wise, cause this girl satisfies. You got a prize that don't compromise — you're one lucky baby.

• Joanne: Take me for what I am...
  Maureen: A control freak!
  Joanne: Who I was meant to be...
  Maureen: A snob yet overattentive!
  Joanne: And if you give a damn...
  Maureen: A lovable droll geek!
  Joanne: Take me baby, or leave me!
  Maureen: And anal retentive!

• Women- what is it about them? Can't live with them or without them.

• Guess I'm leaving — I'm gone.

• The stars gleam, the poets dream, the eagles fly without you.

• But I die without you.

• But I know blue, only blue, lonely blue, within me blue.

• The mind churns, the heart yearns, the tears dry without you.

• Life goes on, but I'm gone 'cause I die without you.

• You'll never share real love until you love yourself. I should know!

• I'd be happy to die for a taste of what Angel had — someone to live for, unafraid to say "I love you"

• Joanne: We used to have this fight each night! She never admit I existed!
  Mimi: He was the same way. He was always run away, hit the road, don't commit, you're full of shit!

• You all said you'd be cool today, so please, for my sake! I can't believe he's gone; I can't believe you're going. I can't believe this family must die! Angel helped us believe in love. I can't believe you disagree! I can't believe this is goodbye.

These are all in a deleted scene:

• Roger: Mark's got his work, they say Mark lives for his work and Mark's in love with his work. Mark hides in his work.
  Mark: From what?
  Roger: Facing your failure, facing your loneliness, facing the fact you live a lie. Yes you live a lie! Tell you why! You're always preaching not to be numb, but that's how you thrive. You pretend to create and observe when you really detach from being alive!
  Mark: Perhaps it's because I'm the one of us to survive!
  Roger: Poor baby!

• You don't want baggage without lifetime guarantees. You don't want to watch me die.

• I just came to say goodbye love. Goodbye love. Just came to say goodbye love. Goodbye. Just came to say goodbye love. Goodbye love. Goodbye love, hello disease.

• (Mark) Don't breathe do deep. Don't think all day. Dive into work. Drive the other way that drip of hurt. That pint of shame, goes away just play the game.
• (Mark) You're living in America. Leave your conscience at the tone. And when you're living in America at the end of the millennium. You're what you own.
• (Roger) The film maker cannot see (Mark) And the song writer cannot hear (Roger) Yet I see Mimi everywhere (Mark) Angel's voice is in my ear.
• (Roger) Just tighten those shoulder's *(Mark) Just clench your jaw till you frown. *(Roger and Mark) Just don't let go or you may frown.
• (Mark and Roger) You're living in America at the end of the millennium- you're living in America, where it's like the twilight zone.
• (Mark and Roger) What was it about that night? Connection in an isolating age. For once the shadows gave way to light. For once I didn't disengage.
• (Mark starts) 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!

• And when you're dying in America at the end of the millennium. You're not alone. I'm not alone.

• How do you measure the life of a woman or man? In truth that she learned, or in times that he cried, in bridges he burned or the way that she died?

• 525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes. How do you measure, measure a year?

• Gospel solo during chorus: Love is a gift from up above. Share love, give love, spread love, measure, measure your life in love.

• How do you measure a last year on Earth?

• In diapers, report cards, in spoked wheels, in speeding tickets. In contracts, dollars, in funerals in births, in 525,600 minutes, how do you figure a last year on earth? Figure in love, figure in love, figure in love, measure in love. Seasons of love.

• Maureen [eulogizing at Angel's funeral]: You always said how lucky we were that we were all friends. But it was us baby, who were the lucky ones.

• No day but today.

• Mimi [quoting what Angel said to a skinhead the first time Angel and Mimi met]: I'm more of a man than you'll ever be, and more of a woman than you'll ever get.

• Mimi: Life's too short babe, time is flying, I'm looking for baggage that goes with mine.

• Mark: There are times when we're dirt broke, hungry, and freezing, and I ask myself, why the hell am I still living here? And then they call and I remember.

• Collins: Merry Christmas Bitches!

• Give in to love or live in fear.

• Forget regret or life is yours to miss.

• Mark [eulogizing at Angel's funeral]: Then there was the time he walked up to this group of tourists and they were petrified because A) They were obviously lost, and B) Had probably never spoken to a drag queen before in their lives... and he... -she just offered to escort them out of Alphabet City, and then she let them take a picture with her and then she said she'd help them find the Circle Line.

• Mimi [after a near-death experience]: I jumped over the moon! A leap of- MOOOOOO!

• Mark: "Has she ever pouted her lips and called you pookie?"
  Joanne: "Never!"
  ...[phone rings, Joanne picks up]
  Joanne: "Pookie?" [whispers] "You've never called me Pookie.."
  • "Tango Maureen"

• Collins: I think you should know that you just paid for the funeral of the person that killed your dog.
  Benny: I always hated that dog.

• Collins: Bond, James Bond.
  Angel: And Pussy Galore, in person!
  Mimi: Pussy, you came prepared!
  Angel: I was a Boy Scout once... and a Brownie. Until some brat got scared!
  Collins: Aha, Moneypenny- my martini!
  Mimi: Will bad champagne do?
  Collins: Mmhmm
  Roger: That's shaken, not stirred!
  Collins: Pussy, the bolts.
  Angel: Just say the word.
  Mimi: 2 minutes left to execute our plan.
  Collins: Where's everyone else?
  Roger: Playing Spiderman!
  Mark: Ironic close-up tight on the phone machine's red light. Once the Boho boys are gone, the power mysteriously turns on.
  • "Happy New Year A"

• Angel: Have compassion. Benny just lost his cat.
  Benny: My dog, but I appreciate that.
  Angel: My cat had a fall and I went through hell.
  Benny: Like losing a — How did you know she fell?
  Collins: Champagne?
  Benny: Don't mind if I do. To dogs!
  All but Benny: No Benny, to you!
  • "Happy New Year B"

• Roger: You pretend to create and observe when you really detach from feeling alive.
  Mark: Perhaps it's because I'm the one of us to survive.
  Roger: Poor baby.
  • "Goodbye Love"

• Collins:I like boys!

Angel:Boys like me!

• Rent (film)