STAGE REVIEW : ‘Cocktail Hour’ in La Mirada

The father in A. R. Gurney’s “The Cocktail Hour” frets about how he’ll come off in the play (also named “The Cocktail Hour”) that his son has written about him.

With good reason. As played by Efrem Zimbalist Jr. at La Mirada Theatre, the character is a richly pompous windbag, as ripe for satire as someone out of Ben Jonson. But that’s not all--in his moments when he isn’t making speeches, when he’s in the grip of a depressing turn of events he didn’t anticipate, we can see the sorrow-struck man beneath Zimbalist’s silver-fox looks. It’s a surprisingly touching performance.

Perhaps we side with the old man more than we might expect because his antagonistic son, the playwright, is less sympathetic than ever in George McDaniel’s performance. McDaniel’s eyes bulge over the injustices he faces. His self-pity is frantic and hard-edged, without the softer profile that might make it appear as more of a boyish indulgence in the face of his intimidating father.

Patricia Place repeats the role of Ann, the patrician wife-mother, that she performed so splendidly at the Norris Theatre last year, again with superb results. She tosses just the right amount of insouciance into Ann’s well-mannered facade.

As the playwright’s sister Nina, Nancy Jeris projects a well-seasoned sense of authority behind her carefully mixed feelings about her brother’s rebellion.

Glenn Casale directs with a firm hand. The play doesn’t fully face all the issues it so deftly raises, but that’s how it goes in the land of the upper-crust Northeastern WASPs. Whatever you think of the play’s narrative contours, its characters are hard to forget.

* “The Cocktail Hour,” La Mirada Theatre, 14900 La Mirada Blvd. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday matinees, 2:30 p.m.; Sundays, 7:30 p.m. Ends Nov. 22. $28-$32. (310) 944-9801 or (714) 994-6310. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.