Show Synopsis:
Frederik Armfeldt brings his new and virginal wife Anne to see his old lover Desiree, a prominent actress, in a play while Anne's maidservant Petra tries to seduce Frederik's son Henrik. Frederik sneaks out later that night to see Desiree, and they recommence their romantic activities before Desiree's married boyfriend Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm barges in. He is upset and later tells his wife Charlotte, who is aware of her husband's infidelity and happens to know Anne, who she visits to relay the story of Frederick's activities. Desiree convinces her mother to host a part for the Armfeldts, which Carl-Magnus and his wife will also attend uninvited. Everyone arrives with their own romantic aims, and Henrik shrieks at everyone for being immoral while hiding his love for Anne. Fredrik tells Desiree that he loves her, but she is a dream to him, and Anne and Henrik sleep together and then run away together. Carol-Magnus and Charlotte leave together and Fredrik finally acknowledges to Desiree that he knows her daughter is his as well. Desiree's mother dies peacefully.

Character:
Petra, a young maid in the Armfeldt house with a roaming eye and dreams of great love; very loyal to Anne.

Song Context:
Petra and Frid, one of Madame Armfeldt?s manservants, have had a romantic encounter, and Petra begins to wonder how much fun she will be able to have before getting ?trapped? in a marriage.

Fun Facts:
1) This musical was inspired by the plot of the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night.
2) This song used to follow another called ?Silly People,? cut after the out-of-town tryout. Frid sang ?Silly People,? and composer Stephen Sondheim realized that no one cared about Frid or his views of the world ? Petra was a much more compelling character to see the upper class through.
3) Leigh Ann Larkin played Petra in the 2010 Broadway revival of A Little Night Music and in an interview with Playbill, she described the character as ?the observer. She?s a very observant girl, and she's kind of the voice of reason within the whole play. She's very feisty, but she's also very playful. She has big-sister qualities to Anne, but she's also always up for a good time. She also knows the difference between reality and, I guess, fiction. She knows where her place is, and she's fine with that, but in the meantime, she's gonna have a great time before anything happens permanently, which she sees very differently from what everybody else is going through in the show. And a nice thing about her ? she never has to put up a façade. She never has to be something she isn't. She always is what she is. She has a lot of comic-relief moments, but the nice thing about "Miller's Son" is that she gets to kind of awaken the audience with almost the meaning of the play, really. She gets to finally let loose on what she's been observing for the time period that she's spent with these people. But gosh, she's a sexy lady [laughs], and she's not afraid of her sexuality and she kind of, in a lot of ways, has been given the liberty to have not a lot of boundaries, not a lot of restrictions."