Editing Send In the Clowns (section)

==Meaning of title==
The "clowns" in the lyrics and title does not specifically refer to [[circus clown]]s, as Sondheim explained in a 1990 interview:

{{Blockquote|I get a lot of letters over the years asking what the title means and what the song's about; I never thought it would be in any way esoteric. I wanted to use theatrical imagery in the song, because she's an ''actress,'' but it's not supposed to be a circus [...] [I]t's a theater reference meaning "if the show isn't going well, let's send in the clowns"; in other words, "let's do the jokes." I always want to know, when I'm writing a song, what the end is going to be, so "Send in the Clowns" didn't settle in until I got the notion, "Don't bother, they're here", which means that "We are the fools."<ref name=Lincoln>{{Cite AV media |title=An Interview with Stephen Sondheim |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWC5qfVnsVs | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070522091221/http://youtube.com/watch?v=iWC5qfVnsVs| archive-date=2007-05-22 | url-status=dead|medium=Video Interview |publisher=Live from Lincoln Center |location=Broadcast live from the New York City Opera during the production of ''[[A Little Night Music]]'', in either 1990 or 1993, when Sally Ann Howes opened the opera season |access-date=2008-06-10}}</ref>}}

In a 2008 interview, Sondheim further clarified:

{{Blockquote|As I think of it now, the song could have been called "Send in the Fools". I knew I was writing a song in which Desirée is saying, "aren't we foolish" or "aren't we fools?" Well, a synonym for fools is clowns, but "Send in the Fools" doesn't have the same ring to it.<ref name=Gussow>{{cite news |last=Gussow |first=Mel |title=Send In the Sondheim; City Opera Revives 'Night Music,' as Composer Dotes |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=2003-03-11 |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E7D6163EF932A25750C0A9659C8B63&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/S/Sondheim,%20Stephen |access-date=2019-05-19}}</ref>}}