The physical production of the Mark Taper Forum premiere (through April 29) of Distracted, Lisa Loomer’s comedy about contemporary parenting woes, seems to be trying to get the script’s attention. Elaine J. McCarthy’s set, a kind of pop-up-greeting-card with diamond vision, screens a furious pre-show montage of media images that accelerate, crescendo, and stop for the play to begin. It suggests that 9-year-old Jesse’s meltdowns may be partly caused by our daily bombardment of sensory stimulation. Certainly his parents have problems communicating between the distractions of incoming calls, digital programming, and other modern conveniences.

Here in Los Angeles (A.K.A. television city), that “media is the menace” message goes in one earphone and out the other. Despite a stage festooned with cell phones, remotes, Blackberrys, video game controls, big screens, and the like, media overload is not among the suspects fingered by Distracted. Instead, the latest effort from the author of The Waiting Room makes its case against genetics, diet, chemical imbalance, and parental inattention. In the script's defense, it does provide two entertaining hours of distraction. - even if, wanting to be both SNL and Frontline, it exhibits a little bi-polarity of its own.

This is the third issue-oriented comedy with a central female character from Ms. Loomer. She began with Expecting Isabel (about having a baby), followed with Living Out (about having a caregiver), and now offers this play about having a hyper-negative child. After too many calls from teachers at wit's end, and too many days that feel endless, Jesse's mother, played by Rita Wilson, is compelled to have the child tested. She learns that what's behind her son's mood swings, which register their narrow arc on the Don Rickles-Lenny Bruce Scale, is Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADD. 

If that sounds too syndrome-specific, Ms. Loomer is just using it to get at a more basic parental conundrum: how to balance a child’s need for self-expression and growth with the discipline needed to keep him from becoming a self-centered ass. For those interested in dissecting the clinical side of Distracted, the program offers an excerpt from The Last Normal Child by Dr. Lawrence Diller. What’s coming off the stage, however, may do greater good as a diversion than as dissection.

In this slick staging by Leonard Foglia, back at the Taper after his hugely successful turn introducing McNally’s Master Class, the first asset is its cast, lead by Ms. Wilson. As our genial guide down the rabbit hole of guilt and confusion, Ms. Wilson is always on stage. She keeps her character engagingly funny, always real, and always watchable. While she has to be the punch line for a series of goofy specialists, then punching bag to her humorless husband (played by Ray Porter), she also has to stand and deliver her own one-liners. She performs all these operations seamlessly.