At this point, the Ingmar Bergman film, “Smiles of a Summer Night” is probably best remembered for the art it has inspired — and, this week, it inspired a ton of Twin Cities theater. Coincidentally, on Friday, July 25, two major productions opened on two different stages — Mu Performing Arts’ “A Little Night Music” in St. Paul at Park Square Theatre and the Guthrie’s “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” in Minneapolis — and both take some inspiration from “Smiles of a Summer Night.” “A Little Night Music” is, in fact, a fairly faithful, musical re-telling of the film. “VSMS” is less faithful but it borrows a plot element or two and one of the characters, Nina, identifies “Smiles of a Summer Night” as one of her favorite films. Now, if Woody Allen’s “Smiles” remake, “A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy,” were just playing somewhere in the Twin Cities, we’d have a trifecta. Trylon Microcinema?
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