Rent

Rent 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.

Light My Candle

• 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... Mi-miiiiiii.

Today 4 U

• 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 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!
  Roger: 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 Mew.

• 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.

Another Day

• There is no future, there is no past. I live this moment as my last.

• Forget regret, or life is yours to miss.

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

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

• Give in to love, or live in fear.

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

• 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.

I'll Cover You Reprise

• 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'll Cover You

• 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.

Over the Moon

• 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!!"

La Vie Bohème

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

• 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!

• 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 empathy to entropy, 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 riding your bike midday past the three piece suits, to fruits, to no absolutes to Absolut, to choice, to the Village Voice, to any passing fad, to being an us for once instead of a them... La Vie Boheme!

• To people living with, living with, living with, not dying from disease!

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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, power, feeling, 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.

• Viva la vie boheme!

Happy New Year

• 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 Or Leave Me

• 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.

Without You

• 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.

Goodbye Love

• 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 detatch 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.

What You Own

• You're living in America. Leave your conscience at the tone.

• You're living in America at the end of the millennium- you're living in America, where it's like the twilight zone.

• I don't own emotion, I rent!

• 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.

• That drip of hurt, that pint of shame, goes away just play the game.

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

• So I own not a notion. I escape and gape--content. I don't own emotion, I rent!

Seasons of Love

• 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?

Seasons of Love B

• 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.

Other Quotes

• 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!

Dialogue

• 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!