Rent

Near the pay phone, a man who is unhoused sings harshly that “Christmas bells are ringing” but “somewhere else. Not here” (13). He exits. Angel Dumott Schunard sits and plays a plastic pickle tub like a drum. She is interrupted by Collins, who enters moaning and limping. Angel asks if Collins is all right. The attackers didn’t take any money because Collins didn’t have any. They stole his coat but left behind one of the sleeves. They introduce themselves and are immediately taken with each other. Angel promises to get him a bandage and to buy him a new coat. Angel also notes casually that she is going to Life Support, a support group meeting, at 9:30 because she has AIDS. Collins replies that he has AIDS, too, and Angel, pleased, says that she made decent money and wants to take Collins out. Collins remembers that his friends are upstairs expecting him, but Angel replies coyly, “You’re cute when you blush. The more the merry—ho ho ho, and I do not take no” (15). They exit together.

Roger teases Mark for running off to help Maureen. Mark invites him to come out to Maureen’s show or to dinner, but Roger replies that he has no money. Before he exits, Mark reminds him, “Take your AZT” (15), referring to an antiretroviral medication used to treat AIDS. Then, to the audience, Mark explains that April, Roger’s girlfriend, left Roger a note that read, “We’ve got AIDS” (16) and then died by suicide. Mark leaves, promising to check on Roger later and urging him to come out. Alone, Roger sings that he is determined to write the perfect song before he dies. He laments that he had everything—“the world at his feet, glory” (16)—but he lost it all. Now Roger’s time feels short, and he wants to leave a great song as his legacy “before the virus takes hold” (17). Mimi Marquez, a beautiful young woman from downstairs, interrupts by knocking on the door. Roger answers, surprised. Mimi has a candle and asks Roger to light it. Roger is concerned that Mimi is shaking and unsteady on her feet, but Mimi says that she’s just cold because her heat was turned off, and she hasn’t eaten.

Roger stares at her, and when she notices, he admits that she reminds him of April, a girl who died. Mimi surreptitiously blows her candle out and asks Roger to light it again. She tries to flirt, but Roger rebuffs her. Mimi leaves, then knocks again. This time, she is frantic because she dropped her stash of heroin. As Mimi crawls on the floor to look for it, Roger starts staring again. Mimi notices and asks sexily, “They say that I have the best ass below 14th street. Is it true?” (20). Roger becomes flustered, insisting that he has seen Mimi before. She tells him that she works as a dancer at the Cat Scratch Club. He realizes that he has seen her perform there, musing, “They used to tie you up,” to which Mimi replies, “It’s a living” (21). Roger remarks that Mimi looks young and should get off the drugs, recognizing her withdrawal symptoms. Roger finds the baggie on the floor but pockets it quickly, pretending he just picked up a piece of trash. Mimi flirts again, drawing him in and asking him to dance. They introduce themselves as Mimi draws him close, steals the drugs from his pocket, and exits seductively.

In Maureen and Joanne’s apartment, the answering machine plays their outgoing message, in which Maureen informs callers about her show, Over the Moon, which she is performing at midnight on the vacant lot next to Mark and Roger’s building in protest of the people who live in the tent city being displaced and the artists being evicted. Afterward, there will be a party at Life Cafe. After the beep, Joanne’s father, Mr. Jefferson, with her mother, Mrs. Jefferson, in the background, announces that they’re leaving for their posh vacation with a senator, offering the names of various assistants, including one at the State Department, if Joanne needs to know their itinerary. Mrs. Jefferson nudges him to remind their daughter to volunteer legal help for unwed mothers in Harlem. Also, Mrs. Jefferson’s confirmation hearings—presumably for the Supreme Court—start on January 10. They expect Joanne to be there without Maureen and to dress conservatively and in a traditionally feminine way.

In Mark and Roger’s apartment, Mark formally introduces Collins as a “computer genius, teacher, vagabond anarchist who ran naked through the Parthenon” (25). Collins carries Angel’s pickle tub, now full of food and supplies, which he describes to a calypso beat as he hands them out. Collins was teaching at MIT but explains, “They expelled me for my theory of actual reality” (26), adding that he will be teaching at New York University. Collins asks if Roger is still refusing to go out, urging him to come out tonight, but Roger says again that he has no money. Collins announces Angel’s grand entrance as a “new member of the alphabet city avant-garde” (27) and the person who is bankrolling their supplies. Angel enters in glitzy Santa-themed drag, waving handfuls of money. Mark is amazed that she earned so much from busking, so Angel launches into the story of how she made the money: Angel was playing the pickle tub when a woman in a limo drove up and hired her to play nonstop under her neighbor’s 23rd-story window to drive their endlessly barking dog—an Akita named Evita—to jump out. Angel accomplished the mission and received extra for decorating the woman’s tree. Afterward, Angel met Collins on the street in need of some first aid. Throughout, Angel repeats the refrain, “Today for you, tomorrow for me” (27).

As Benny enters, he shouts at a person who is unhoused to get off his car. Mark comments that Benny’s treatment of people in that situation exemplifies what Maureen is protesting and narrates that Benny was once their roommate, but he married a woman from a wealthy family and bought the building with the adjacent lot to start a cyberstudio. Benny counters that Maureen is only protesting the loss of the vacant lot as her performance space. Roger asks, “What happened to Benny, what happened to his heart and the ideals he once pursued?” (29). Benny presses them for the rent money, and both Mark and Roger scoff that they’re broke. They’re unsurprised when Benny offers not only to let them live rent-free (guaranteed on paper) but also to give them space to work at the cyberstudio to make films and write music. In return, they have to persuade Maureen to cancel her performance protest. He has the police standing by, but his investors want it to go away quietly. Roger exclaims, “You can’t quietly wipe out an entire tent city then watch It’s a Wonderful Life on TV!” (30). Benny tells them to think about it and exits. Collins mentions that they are going to a Life Support meeting before the show, and he invites them. Mark needs to go save the protest first, and Roger replies that he isn’t good company. They all part ways.

Mark finds Joanne in the lot next door struggling with the sound equipment. She reluctantly agrees to let him help. As they test the microphone, Joanne exclaims that she is beyond agitated and angry, which is made even worse by having to spend time with Mark. Mark recognizes the feeling and describes it as “the tango Maureen” (34), in which Maureen drives her partners to frustration and obsession by alternately pushing them away and pulling them close. Mark asks, “Has she ever pouted her lips and called you ‘pookie’?” (35). Joanne resists at first, claiming that their relationship is different, but soon they are tangoing together. Joanne realizes that Maureen must be cheating like she cheated on Mark, and she should walk away, but Mark agrees that it’s impossible to leave her: “Gotta dance ’til your diva is through” (37). They test the microphone again, and it works. Joanne thanks him. Mark comments that he feels great, and Joanne replies that she feels terrible. The pay phone rings, and Mark answers, passing it to Joanne. She starts to tell Maureen that the sound is fixed, stopping short when Maureen calls her “pookie,” (38) then deciding immediately to let it go. After hanging up, the two repeat, “The tango Maureen!” (38).

At the Life Support meeting, members of the group sit in a circle and each say their names in turn, including Angel and Collins. The text notes that company members can choose any names for each performance to honor loved ones who died of AIDS. Paul, the group leader, starts their positive affirmations, but their sweet, mournful melody is cut off by Mark’s awkward late arrival and his musically disjointed apologies as he finds his seat. Paul asks who he is, and Mark stammers, trying to explain his presence without saying the words that he doesn’t have AIDS, and finally landing on proclaiming his name. Self-consciously, Mark sings, “Well—this is quite an operation” (40). Paul tells him to have a seat and goes back to leading the affirmation. The group members sing: “Forget regret, or life is yours to miss” (40). Then Gordon, another member, interrupts, musically mirroring Mark’s interruption, to assert that the group’s unbridled positivity bothers him. His T-cell count is low, which is news he regrets. Calmly, Paul asks Gordon how he feels today, and Gordon admits that he feels better than he has in a year. Paul questions why he chooses fear. Gordon sings, “Look—I find some of what you teach suspect, because I’m used to relying on intellect, but I try to open up to what I don’t know” (41). From the other side of the stage, Roger joins in and they sing, “Because reason says I should have died three years ago” (41).

Abruptly, the music shifts into an upbeat, dirty pop-rock sound. In her own apartment, Mimi sings that it’s almost midnight, and she’s climbing the walls with her desire to go out and get into trouble. She knows where to find the best places to party, pleading seductively, “Take me out tonight” (42). Mimi promises that they don’t need money because doormen always let her in without paying, and the person who goes out with her can experience the same VIP treatment. The music changes suddenly again in the bridge, becoming unexpectedly somber as Mimi sings about how she needs to go out because she can’t sleep in the city when it “feels too damn much like home when the Spanish babies cry” (42). Gaining momentum, Mimi begs, “So let’s find a bar so dark we forget who we are, where all the scars from the nevers and maybes die” (43). With the music back at its original tempo, Mimi continues to insist that someone take her out, making her way to Roger’s door and singing the last lines of the song to him. Mimi kisses him. Roger pulls away, recoiling. The music becomes harsher, and he asks bitterly, “Who do you think you are? Barging in on me and my guitar” (43), directing her to leave. Roger can’t handle her presence and the possibility of a romantic relationship if he lets himself fall for her, especially since she’s on drugs.

Roger asserts that in another time or place, things would be different. The music changes, becoming somber again as Mimi desperately sings about living for the moment as if there were no future or past. She shifts into the Life Support affirmation about forgetting regrets. Roger retakes control of the music, harshly accusing her of being all talk, demanding, “If you’re so wise then tell me—why do you need smack?” (44). He insists again that in another time and place, things would be different, but he orders her to leave. The lights come up on the Life Support meeting, and Mimi sings along with their affirmations about saying yes because there’s “no day but today” (45). In counterpoint, Roger repeats his angry, indignant rant, telling Mimi to leave him alone because he finds her intoxicating. Mimi exits, along with the members of the Life Support group except one, Steve, who stays on stage. Roger sings the first line of “One Song Glory” and fades out. Plaintively, Steve sings, “Will I lose my dignity? Will someone care? Will I wake tomorrow from this nightmare?” (46). One by one, four other group members join in, singing the same lines in a round. Decisively, Roger puts his coat on and leaves the apartment.