While the song itself is cheerful and energetic, many listeners will recognize it and know that the musical as a whole is darker.
In the original, there are dialogue segments interspersed with the music. The lyrics as presented here remove those in a way that probably works. I’ve also modified the opening to reference solstice instead of the in-plot funeral.
The sheet music here is also transposed down into a register that’s more convenient for NYC, and has fewer sharps and flats than the original. It’s also annotated with singers: G is male, E is female and D is not to be trusted with complex music. The original, of course, has more singers, so this was an attempt to collapse it to three.
A recording of the original is on youtube, as are most likely many others.
[G] Here we sing
For Whate'er it's worth
On this blue green planet called mother earth
On this night when we celebrate rebirth
Of that yellow star we call our own
We raise our glass, you bet your ass, to
La vie Bohème
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 loving tension, no pension
To more than one dimension
To starving for attention
Hating convention
Hating pretension
Not to mention, of course
Hating dear old Mom and Dad
To riding your bike
Midday past the three piece suits
To fruits
To no absolutes
[E] To Absolut
[G] To choice
To The Village Voice
To any passing fad
To being an us, for once
Instead of a them
La vie Bohème
[D] So that's five miso soup
Four seaweed salad
Three soy burger dinner
Two tofu dog platter
And one pasta with meatless balls
And thirteen orders of fries
Is that it here?
[G&E] Wine and beer!
[E] To hand crafted beers made in local breweries
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
[G] Mucho masturbation
[E] Compassion, to fashion, to passion
When it's new
To Sontag
To Sondheim
To anything taboo
[G] Ginsberg, Dylan, Cunningham, and Cage
Lenny Bruce
Langston Hughes
[E] To the stage
[G] To Uta
To Buddha
[E] Pablo Neruda, too
[G&E] Why Dorothy and Toto went over the rainbow
To blow off Auntie Em
[All] La vie Bohème
[E] Bisexuals, trisexuals, homo sapiens
Carcinogens, hallucinogens, men
Pee wee Herman
German wine, turpentine, Gertrude Stein
Antonioni, Bertolucci, Kurosawa
Carmina Burana
[G] To apathy, to entropy, to empathy, ecstasy
[G&E] Vaclav Havel, The Sex Pistols, A B C
[E] To no shame, never playing the Fame Game
[G] To marijuana
[E] To sodomy
It's between God and me
[All] To S and M
La vie Bohème
La vie Bohème
La vie Bohème
