Nathan Minter is one of those overbearing men who believe that success in their chosen professions makes them, without further effort, successful sons, husbands and fathers.

As Alan Brandt sets out to demonstrate in "2 1/2 Jews," his understanding and compassionate debut play, which bares a man's flaws but shies from tragedy, Nathan Minter is a winner as a humanitarian lawyer but a loser in his personal relationships. Oh, his 78-year-old immigrant father, Morris, may refer to him as the "Jewish Clarence Darrow," and his Yale-educated son, Marc, may call him the "Albert Schweitzer of the legal profession," but the descriptions are drenched in bitterness.

Nathan, played by Richard M. Davidson, may boast of his victories against the odds and his commitment to hopeless and indigent clients, but he is blind to his self-absorption, his anger and the damage he inflicts on those closest to him. His gentile wife of 34 years can no longer accept his repeated absences, for professional reasons, from important family occasions like their son's graduation and Thanksgiving dinner.

"She likes being married to a winner" is Nathan's arrogant explanation for why he is certain she will understand his latest failure to appear.

Nathan's son (Tyagi Schwartz) may have followed in his father's footsteps to become a lawyer and a newly minted partner in a white-shoe law firm. But he is the object not of his father's unalloyed pride but of suggestions that he should have spurned upscale lawyering in favor of partnership with Nathan.

And while the obstreperous Morris (Sam Gray), a free-thinking immigrant who arrived at 16 from Lithuania and settled in the Bronx, can see Nathan clearly from the vantage point of his years and experience, Nathan doesn't want to listen to him, either.

Nathan will have to pay a price before he can begin to achieve self-understanding.

Mr. Brandt, the author of "2 1/2 Jews," which is playing until Feb. 7 at the Raymond J. Greenwald Theater in Chelsea, comes to play writing at 75 after a career as a lyricist of songs like "That's All," a publicist and, more recently, a dealer in primitive art. So, like Morris, he brings the experience of a lifetime to his intergenerational drama.

"2 1/2 Jews," sprinkled with lighthearted moments, remains an easy-to-watch cautionary tale. Under the direction of Joe Brancato, the conflicts are clear, and the cast is well chosen, with Mr. Gray as the feisty Morris a particular delight.