Barb, the counselor at a Chicago-area rehab facility, offers a lot of “fun facts” during the course of the well-meaning AA dramedy Another Shot, which opened Tuesday at Off Broadway’s Pershing Square Signature Center. Roughly one in 10 people are alcoholic, she tells us, and they consume roughly 50% of all the booze. More alarmingly, one in 10 drivers on American roads are apparently under the influence.

One of those was Harry, a popular sports-radio guy whose DUI arrest after a Blackhawks game has led him to an eight-week rehab stint that he initially lulls himself into believing is just a necessary detour to reclaim his job — and his life of pre- and post-game boozing. Dan Butler, who memorably played the gonzo sports reporter Bulldog Brisco on Frasier, brings a likeable, quick-witted energy to the role. He’s quick with a punchline — he remembers telling the cop who pulled him over to ask if he’d been drinking, “Why, are you buying?” — but slower to acknowledge the pain that his habits have caused his friends and family, particularly his young children. He’s our easy-going tour guide through the journey to recovery.

In addition to therapist Barb, a recovering alcoholic herself played with steady professionalism by Portia, we meet other members of Harry’s daily group sessions: Vince (the wonderful Chiké Johnson) is a family man and rehab veteran who’s struggling to repeat the mistakes of his abusive father; Isaiah (Gregg Mozgala) is a pharmacist who played fast and loose with his scrips pads; Andrea (Samantha Mathis) is a five-time divorcée with a sharp tongue; and George (Quentin Nguyen-Duy) is a lost, tattooed twentysomething estranged from his mother and casting about to find a place for himself in the world.

Spike Manton and Harry Teinowitz’s script, inspired by former radio host Teinowitz’s own experiences, consists of short scenes that efficiently guide us through the story beats of a treatment program without dwelling too long on all-too-familiar clichés of the genre. The frequent jokes, often deployed as obvious attempts at deflection, help matters — but so does the specificity of details. For some reason, all the rehab residents are drawn to watching reruns of Cheers, the saloon-set comedy from which Butler’s Frasier was spun off, particularly the episode in which recovering alcoholic Sam Malone relapses. And they also seem to home in on other pop culture signposts others might miss, like what alcoholic beverage E.T. gulped down in a scene from Steven Spielberg’s 1982 classic that’s unlikely to be included in any 21st-century remake (it was cans of Coors Banquet beer).

Director Jackson Gay directs with a nimble confidence, including interstitial music between scenes like the bumpers you’d hear when sitcoms head to commercial. The show also uses the blackouts between scenes to play audio testimonials from other recovering alcoholics, including the number of days or years they’ve been in recover, to offer an even broader scope of those facing down the disease. Another Shot covers very familiar ground, but it’s a well-crafted production that may play best to an audience of one — that one person who really, truly needs to know that there’s a light at the end of the glass that another pour won’t fix.

ANOTHER SHOT
Pershing Square Signature Center, Off Broadway
Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes (no intermission)
Tickets on sale through Jan. 4