A TUDGE ROMANCE
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Here the tudge is Gaetano Mortilucci; and the opposite who attracts him is Andrea Griffiths. Alas, they come from different worlds. She’s a Boston lawyer specializing in trademark infringements who longs, not surprisingly, for an “authentic” life; he’s a housepainter who hates lawyers, snobs, and stupid dates. Andrea is different, but unfortunately she’s also a very loud Yankees fan, and Gaetano is a North Ender who’s true-blue to the Red Sox. (On their first date, Andrea literally gets carried away cheering for New York; Gaetano barely gets her out of Fenway Park before a riot erupts.) In one of the play’s many “ironic” parallels, Andrea’s love of baseball is opposed to Gaetano’s love of opera.
Andrea falls for the tudge’s refreshing earthy charm, common sense, and lack of materialism. But to get him, she must act down, pretend to be her own secretary so Gaetano won’t suspect she’s an uppity “tweed.” It seems Gaetano is still recovering after a woman dropped him to return to medical school. If he finds out that Andrea is also, well, a professional, all bets are off.
In the Eve Arden part, as the confidante Cindy who lives vicariously through Andrea’s new love life, Aggie Mollinger shows a skillful spunk–even though Formichella makes Cindy repeatedly talk to herself, always the most desperate kind of exposition.
