McCarter Theatre's 'All the Days,' by Sharyn Rothstein

Perhaps such plays are a little like family, at least in Sharyn Rothstein's television-ready "dramedy" (I dislike that word, but it is a word, and feels made for this play), All the Days, premiering at McCarter Theatre in nearby Princeton, NJ. Like the play that tells her story, Ruth Zweigman and her family are entertaining but difficult to like.

Rothstein, a television writer (Suits) as well as playwright, seems to compose for a laugh track. Caroline Aaron plays Ruth, a glum middle-aged woman who threw out her pots and pans ("I felt like they were judging me" hahahaha) because her ailments are adding up and she's not doing much to improve — although later, her health problems just fade away. Daughter Miranda (Stephanie Janssen) journeys to Long Island from Philadelphia to help, but old wounds are opened and exposition (Ruth's divorce, a dead son, Miranda's ex-husband) pours out, with assistance from Ruth's prickly sister Monica (Leslie Ayvazian). Miranda invites Ruth to live with her and son Jared (Matthew Kuenne) as they prepare for his bar mitzvah.

Add lots of laughs, a few tears, stir

At Miranda's — another perfectly realized set by Daniel Ostling after the one-scene use of Ruth's kitchen (McCarter spares no expense) — we meet Miranda's New Age boyfriend Stew (Justin Hagan), Miranda's dad Del (Ron Orbach), and Ruth's new romantic interest, Baptiste (Raphael Nash Thompson).

What ensues is a quippy, punchline-rich, largely generic two hours of earnest squabbling and tidy realization from a cast that can only elevate the material so much. Every line Ayvazian speaks is like a wild mountain bike ride: lots of bumps, shakes, and slides, but she always gets us there. Back when we had phone books, we'd say that actors like Ayvazian could fascinate us just by reading one. Like a marksman playing an amusement park game, Orbach's Del shoots clever lines with ease. Janssen does most of the emotional heavy lifting as Miranda, agonizing over her weaknesses as both daughter and mother, but by the laws of dramedy, there's only one way it all can end.

An impressive focus

I was most impressed by the play's focus on older characters; it's nice to see people supposedly near life's end who have some life in them, without the adolescent crudeness that passes for vitality on drivel such as Hot in Cleveland. The curse of age for the audience, however, is that we've heard this before. All the Days plays all the well-worn grooves of generational conflict, from jokes about Ruth's inconsistent curmudgeonly side ("My mother believes optimism is a form of mental illness") to tired shots at Stew's nerdy therapist-speak.

Director Emily Mann's production is good looking. Jess Goldstein's costumes capture the characters perfectly, Jeff Croiter lights Ostling's roll-on set pieces well, and Mark Bennett's ready-for-prime-time musical themes bridge the many scenes (instead of the commercials I instinctively expected). I enjoyed watching, but the more I think about it, the more it frustrates and disappoints me.

All the Days left me pondering this question: Should a major regional theater with a great history of world premieres, including recent Pulitzer Prize winners (Anna in the Tropics), Tony Award winners (Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike) and groundbreaking new work (The Brother/Sister Plays by Tarell Alvin McCraney, Danai Gurira's The Convert) really produce such formulaic drivel, however momentarily diverting?