Rent

Standing in a line across the lip of the stage, the company sings about the passage of time. A year consists of 525,600 minutes, and they ask how one properly measures a year of a person’s life, considering, “in daylights—in sunsets, in midnights—in cups of coffee, in inches—in miles, in laughter—in strife” (87). They suggest that a person’s life should be remembered and measured in love.

It’s New Year’s Eve, and the group gathers to pry off the padlock in a “breaking-back-into-the-building party” (88). Roger and Mimi are together and happy. As they watch the clock to count down to the New Year, Mimi swears in an aside that she will reinvent her life and even go back to school, because the past week with Roger has changed her. Mark frets that the rest of the group hasn’t arrived, and they’re running out of time. Mimi remarks that they’re probably trying to figure out what to wear to “a party that’s also a crime” (89). As if in response, Maureen enters dressed as a “cat burglar” (89), in a tight outfit with cat ears. Mark makes fun of her, and they bicker. Maureen points out that filming her riot landed Mark’s work on television.