Abstract
Stephen Sondheim apparently regrets that “Send in the Clowns” has become a sappy clown anthem, because it’s not about clowns. The song, from his musical A Little Night Music, uses regret at lost love to hint at a renewed affair, and doesn’t particularly apply to clowns, but clowns are people too, and know loss, so in that roundabout way, it is about clowns. Anyway, Sondheim can’t complain about clichéd use because he built his song on a cliché, the happy clown melodramatically contrasted with sadness.
Send in the clowns.
Stephen Sondheim, A Little Night Music.
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© 2016 David Carlyon
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Carlyon, D. (2016). Clown Mask. In: The Education of a Circus Clown. Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137547439_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137547439_12
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-57507-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-54743-9
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