AfterElton - 27/Feb/2009

[Source]
AfterElton's Hot 100 for 2008!
Posted byAfterElton.com Staff on February 27, 2009

3. Luke MacFarlane*

Rank last year: N/A

Making the highest debut of anyone on the Hot 100 List is, 28-year-old Canadian Luke MacFarlane rocketing into the third position. The secret to his stunning success? Portraying Brothers & Sisters’ adorable Scotty Wandell, who recently “wed” his partner Kevin Walker (Matthew Rhys) in television’s highest profile same-sex commitment ceremony, certainly didn’t hurt; nor did MacFarlane’s decision to come out to a Canadian newspaper last April. Throw in the fact that the frequently stubble-faced thespian is not only smoking hot, but possesses an innate sweetness that caused fans to fall hard for his portrayal of the sometimes hapless Scotty, and you have his recipe for success.

MacFarlane’s profile will likely on increase this fall when Brothers & Sisters returns to ABC and fans tune in to see what’s next for Kevin and Scotty. Additionally, in November, Canadian audiences can see MacFarlane play James Nichol in Iron Road, a TV mini-series set in 1882 about an immigrant Chinese woman who falls for the son of a railroad tycoon. The role casts as MacFarlane as the heterosexual love interest — adding yet another actor to the growing list who have proven being a gay heartthrob doesn’t mean you can’t play a straight love interest.

Advocate.com - 20/Feb/2009

[Source]

All That Jazz

By Ross von Metzke

Jeremy Gabriel and Luke MacFarlane

At an hour and 50 minutes, The Jazz Age teeters just around that length of a play in need of some sort of intermission -- just when the "mad dash for the bathroom" pangs sweep over your body, the play comes to a screeching halt. And it's that sort of frantic energy that makes Allan Knee's high-pitched piece such a success (thanks, in large part, to director Michael Matthews's quick pacing and the in-your-face performances of a trio of able actors).
The story of authors Ernest Hemingway (Jeremy Gabriel) and F. Scott Fitzgerald (Luke MacFarlane of TV's Brothers & Sisters ) and their unusual, codependent -- and, at turns, bordering on sexual -- relationship takes the audience on a fast-paced ride through the highs and lows of the Jazz Age, a period from 1918 to 1929 when Fitzgerald's career flourished, then fell apart, and Hemingway clawed his way from relative obscurity to great American author.
The pair make for an odd couple -- Hemingway, masculine and secure; Fitzgerald, at times euphoric and childlike, but often crippled by a lifelong battle with alcoholism and an overwhelming need to top his life's great work, The Great Gatsby.
Along for the ride is their female foil, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald (Heather Prete) -- platinum blond, oozing sexuality -- the love of Scott's life, he says, though the two spend the bulk of the play building each other up just to rip it right back down again.
Scott's real fascination is with Hemingway. The two box, drink, talk literature -- they even compare dick sizes in one of the play's more heated moments. They can't be together, but they can't seem to stay apart for long. They are the real loves of each other's lives, though -- at least in The Jazz Age -- for the most part, it's strictly platonic.

Luke MacFarlane and Heather Prete

Both Gabriel and MacFarlane are up to the challenge of running all systems go in a relatively small black box theater. The play requires that each actor roar above a three-person jazz band (the talented Ian Whitcomb and his Bungalow Boys, who play throughout the show) without going too far over the top. Their conversations are intense -- Gabriel the able man's man while MacFarlane channels the sort of feminine exuberance that fits him so well on Brothers & Sisters and manages to refine it for an intimate space.
The third wheel, Prete is faced with a difficult task -- make your trademark whiny, sexpot southern belle sympathetic. It takes her a while (mostly because her character is the least fleshed out of the three), but when Zelda's mind begins to unravel, Prete lets loose -- a scene in a mental hospital is particularly fine.
Sets are minimal, and that suits the play just fine. Save for the occasional almost bedroom tryst and a whole lot of drinking, The Jazz Age is really about these three actors. The play's abrupt ending is a bit of a jolt and takes a while to swallow, but as with the rest of the play, it goes down -- that it takes a bit of energy from the audience to let it all soak in seems oddly fittings ... as if Fitzgerald and Hemingway wouldn't have it any other way.

AfterElton - 17/Feb/2009

[Source]
AfterElton Briefs: Timberlake tops, MacFarlane reviewed, backstage at "Drag Race," and more!
Posted by Dennis Ayers, Managing Editor on February 17, 2009

Jeremy Gabriel and Luke Macfarlane in The Jazz Age

• Today's Variety reviews The Jazz Age, the one act play starring out actor and AfterElton.com fave Luke Maccarlane as F. Scott Fitzgerald. Unfortunately, the entertainment trade mag was not much impressed:

Luke Macfarlane's Fitzgerald is given one note to play, as the character himself confesses: "I'm needy. I'm effeminate." The actor totters and smiles through his tears, but neither the chemistry with his libidinous flapper spouse nor his descent into alcoholism is rendered credible. Nor has [Playwright] Knee provided him with the verbal eloquence to suggest this fellow could produce a Fitzgerald short story, let alone "The Great Gatsby."

Ouch! At least most of the reviewer's ire is directed at the playwright and not at Macfarlane.   

The Variety - 16/Feb/2009

[Source]

Legit Reviews

Posted: Mon., Feb. 16, 2009, 5:33pm PT
The Jazz Age
(Blank Theater; 53 seats; $28 top)
By BOB VERINI

A Blank Theater Company presentation, in association with Jana Robbins Prods., of a play in one act by Allan Knee. Directed by Michael Matthews.

Fitzgerald - Luke Macfarlane Zelda - Heather Prete Hemingway - Jeremy Gabriel

Despite the title, there's hardly any jazz heard in Allan Knee's "The Jazz Age," nor does the play provide much insight into that period between the World Wars beyond the grim repetition of Gertrude Stein's pronouncement "You're a lost generation." There's a lot of jazz about F. Scott Fitzgerald's supposed homoerotic fixation on Ernest Hemingway (and Papa's ambivalent reaction to same), but it doesn't add up to a convincing portrait of two of the last century's master prose stylists -- and don't even ask about Zelda.

Determined to zoom through the two decades from the Fitzgeralds' meeting to Scott's untimely death, the play is a series of two-handed "and then I wrote" conversations -- or in Scott's case, "and then I drank" -- resorting to direct address when plot points don't fit neatly into the scenes.

Familiar names are dropped (Bunny Wilson, Max Perkins) and well-worn anecdotes recycled, some gotten wrong. (Screenwriters were dismissed as "schmucks with Underwoods," not "jerks," and the quote is from Jack Warner rather than Louis B. Mayer.) However detailed or skimpy the research, two of the three characters just don't come to life.

Luke Macfarlane's Fitzgerald is given one note to play, as the character himself confesses: "I'm needy. I'm effeminate." The actor totters and smiles through his tears, but neither the chemistry with his libidinous flapper spouse nor his descent into alcoholism is rendered credible. Nor has Knee provided him with the verbal eloquence to suggest this fellow could produce a Fitzgerald short story, let alone "The Great Gatsby."

Armed with more interesting and surprising things to say, Jeremy Gabriel avoids cliche to make Hemingway more of a flesh-and-blood creation, investing Papa's celebrated pugnacity with a driven artist's sensitivity.

But poor Zelda! Knee's interpretation predates 1970, when Nancy Milford's biography and other scholarship began to see her as a strong artist in her own right and less as Scott's victimizer than victim.

Here she comes across as a Tennessee Williams retread: a dreamy nymphomaniac Southern belle whose jealousy drives a wedge into her marriage, making her husband miserable until she goes bughouse. Heather Prete seems directed to channel first the young Blanche Du Bois and then Amanda Wingfield, complete with old tattered gown.

This kitschy stuff might lend itself to a light, lively treatment -- like the Charleston Ernest keeps trying to teach Scott -- but helmer Michael Matthews takes matters at a slow foxtrot. When Papa asks Scott to throw a drink in his face, or Scott solicits a second opinion as to whether his penis is too small (Zelda has already weighed in), the action goes exactly where we expect while taking forever to get there.

Ian Whitcomb and His Bungalow Boys work overtime in their cramped overhead platform, but an accordion/guitar/string bass trio simply isn't constituted to convey Jazz Age authenticity, except when the action briefly moves to France or Spain.

Sets, Kurt Boetcher; costumes, Michael Mullen; lighting, Tim Swiss; original music, Ian Whitcomb; stage manager, Ilona Pacek. Opened, reviewed, Feb. 12, 2009. Runs through March 22. Running time: 2 HOURS.

With: Ian Whitcomb and His Bungalow Boys.

Theater Mania - 12/Feb/2009

[Source]
Luke Macfarlane Is Ready for All That Jazz
The Brothers & Sisters star takes on the role of author F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Jazz Age.
By: Brian Scott Lipton  Feb 12, 2009 Los Angeles

Luke Macfarlane in The Jazz Age

(© Rick Baumgartner)

In one of those unusual cosmic coincidences, Luke Macfarlane is spending his days playing two very different characters with the same name. By day, he's shooting his scenes as Scotty Wardell, the usually patient and occasionally exasperated husband of lawyer Kevin Walker on ABC's primetime drama Brothers & Sisters, while at night, he's "Scotty" -- better known as author F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Blank Theatre's production of Allan Knee's The Jazz Age.

So far, though, mix-ups have been kept to the minimum, says Macfarlane: "It can be insane doing the double-duty dance, but so far the worst that has happened is that I entered our apartment on the Brothers & Sisters set and said one of the lines in the play, 'You're late,' rather than 'You're home.' Matthew (Rhys, who plays Kevin) was a little like 'whaaaat.'"

While the Canadian-born actor has become famous for his television role -- as well as his decision to come out publicly as a gay man -- the Blank can hardly be accused of stunt casting. He was a successful stage actor in New York, having appeared in such Off-Broadway successes as Where Do We Live? and The Busy World Is Hushed after graduating from the prestigious Juilliard School of Drama. "After three years in L.A., I began to dream of my glory days on the boards," he says of his decision to do a play. "But it's very difficult to make a living as a theater actor in New York, which is why I moved out here, and I always had an ambition to work in television. I am a great admirer of the format, and I think it's how we tell long stories."


The Jazz Age, which focuses on Fitzgerald's relationships with wife Zelda (played by Heather Prete) and friend and fellow author Ernest Hemingway (played by Jeremy Gabriel), appealed to Macfarlane on a number of levels. "The Great Gatsby was required reading in high school, but since taking on the role and listening to a lot of his novels on audiobooks -- which is easier for me because I'm dyslexic -- I've really begun to appreciate what a remarkable writer he was," he says.

As for doing research into Fitzgerald's life, he notes: "There's never enough time to do all the research one wants; there are all these huge dense biographies and he cataloged everything in his life. But what's most interesting is that I've discovered that he really needed to live the kind of live he did so he could reinterpret in on the page. His choice in marrying Zelda was no mistake."

The play also doesn't shy away from Fitzgerald's possibly homoerotic feelings towards Hemingway, most notably in a scene that has to do with comparing penis sizes. While that encounter may not have happened, Macfarlane says the subject was discussed by the two men in letters. "I actually think that Scott turned to Hemingway to teach him about being a man. He was always afraid that something was wrong with him and his masculinity," says Macfarlane. "There was really this desperate need for him to feel he was okay."

Macfarlane says another key to his portrayal of Fitzgerald is his footwear; in this case, a pair of black-and-white spats. "I always like to start with a great pair of shoes," he says. "It's your first contact with the ground and it can really change the way you move and act physically."

His footwear on Brothers & Sisters -- when there is any since Scotty Wardell is often barefoot -- is nothing to write home about. But clothes hardly matter when one is working with a cast that includes such top-notch actors as Sally Field, Ron Rifkin, Calista Flockhart, and Rachel Griffiths. "I think the first table read I ever did, my hand was vibrating the whole time," he says. "But we have a wonderful group collective. If a scene doesn't work, we're all willing to talk about it. And I think we all have this great story to tell."

Playbill.com - 11/Feb/2009

[Source]
PLAYBILL.COM'S BRIEF ENOUNTER With Luke Macfarlane
By Robert Simonson
11 Feb 2009

Luke Macfarlane

Photo by Andrew Eccles/ ABC

Luke Macfarlane, who plays Scotty on the ABC series "Brothers & Sisters," is currently portraying a different Scott.
The stage and small-screen actor has been cast as the dashing, wayward Jazz Age author F. Scott Fitzgerald in Allan Knee's new play, appropriately titled Jazz Age. Other characters in the drama, presented by the Blank Theatre Company in Los Angeles, are Fitzgerald's tempestuous Southern belle wife, Zelda, and his literary colleague and lifelong frenemy, Ernest Hemingway. Macfarlane, who last appeared on the stage in Playwrights Horizons' The Busy World Is Hushed, is juggling the play with his usual responsibilities on "Brothers & Sisters," now in its third season. Macfarlane talked to Playbill.com about his dual life on stage and screen.

Playbill.com: Before accepting this role, were you a fan of Fitzgerald's work?
Luke Macfarlane: Well, I'm from Canada, and it's a testament to his broad reach that we're asked to read "The Great Gatsby" in Canada. I read it as a kid. It's one of those things that sticks with you. I hadn't read much of his work since then. When I got the role, I went on this binge, reading a lot of the short stories, thinking I wasn't going to have time to read the novels. Then, you know what, I felt I had to read those novels. So, I downloaded them on Audible.com — a wonderful way to hear his work.

Playbill.com: He doesn't have a huge canon, so it doesn't take that long to get through his work.
LM: No, he doesn't. He only wrote a few novels, but every one of them is remarkable.

Playbill.com: Hemingway is also in this play. Are you a fan of his writing?
LM: I had read "The Sun Also Rises," and in preparation for the play I read his "A Moveable Feast," because he speaks a lot of Fitzgerald.

Playbill.com: And not a lot of it too complimentary.
LM: Well, no. It was an interesting time for Hemingway, because Fitzgerald was dead when he wrote it. But there was always a kind of competition between them. Ten years after Fitzgerald's death, there was a kind of resurgence for his work, so some people have speculated that this was Hemingway's way of kicking him a little bit.

Playbill.com: This is not a naturalistic play, is it?
LM: It's very ambitious in its scope. It encompasses Fitzgerald's life from the time we find him when he was 21 to shortly before his death. There are moments when you have to use direct address. The play imagines a visit that we don't actually know if it happened...Hemingway visits Fitzgerald when he was living in Hollywood in 1942.

Playbill.com: You have been able to fit this in with your schedule at "Brothers & Sisters"?
LM: Yes. It's been kind of insane. For the most part, they have been really accommodating. I work early in the morning and come to rehearsal around 6 PM.

Luke Macfarlane on "Brothers & Sisters"

photo by Andrew Eccles/ ABC

Playbill.com: How is everything on "Brothers & Sisters"?
LM: Very well. We're almost done with our third season. It feels nice to be a series regular, after all this time.

Playbill.com: For many theatre people, the initial attraction of the show was that it was created by playwright Jon Robin Baitz. Do you stay in touch with him?
LM: I don't really stay in touch too much, but he really championed me early on, and he'd seen my work and thought I would be great for the role of Scotty. I was really lucky to have that connection.

Playbill.com: When he was suddenly no longer involved in the show, did that come as a surprise?
LM: They do a really good job of insulating the actors. I think it was more painful for some people because of their closeness to Robbie. Obviously [co-star] Ron [Rifkin] and Robbie go a long way back, and I can't begin to speculate on what that may have been like for them. But, yeah, I think that was a surprise.

Playbill.com: Was it a rough transition, or did the show just sail along seamlessly?
LM: It certainly didn't sail along seamlessly. (Laughs) They brought people in and the tone of the show changed. Who knows if it was for better or for worse, but we all felt the shift for sure. Robbie was such a good father figure for the show.

Luke Macfarlane with Hamish Linklater in The Busy World Hushed.

photo by Joan Marcus

AfterElton - 09/Feb/2009

[Source]

AfterElton Briefs: Luke Macfarlane's "Jazz", Foo Fighters for marriage equality, and more!
Posted by Brian Juergens, Contributor on February 9, 2009

Jeremy Gabriel and Luke Macfarlane in The Jazz Age

Following this assortment of carefully-selected news items, interested readers can find a refreshing pic of a hot man in underwear after the jump. Yes, we're serious.

• Above, Luke Macfarlane and Jeremy Gabriel as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway in the LA production of The Jazz Age. More pics over here

Broadway World.com - 07/Feb/2009

[Source]

Photo Flash: Blank Theatre Company Presents THE JAZZ AGE
Saturday, February 7, 2009; Posted: 03:02 PM - by BWW News Desk

Luke MacFarlane, Jeremy Gabriel, and Heather Prete star in the Blank Theatre Company's production of Allan Knee's play THE JAZZ AGE. The production runs now through March 22, 2009.

F. Scott Fitzgerald. Ernest Hemingway. Zelda Fitzgerald. Literary history's most intriguing characters. This sexy new play goes inside their minds to fantasize on the question of "inspiration". Punctuated by the pulsating beat of a live jazz trio, THE JAZZ AGE asks the compelling question "Why do we do what we do?"

The Academy Award-winning film FINDING NEVERLAND was based on playwright Allan Knee's personal and deeply emotional play, similarly exploring The Life and heart of writer J.M. Barrie. An evening of pure decadence coupled with sheer brilliance, this play will breathlessly take you down a dark, forbidden path.

THE JAZZ AGE is produced in association with Jana Robbins Productions. Robbins graced the stage in The Blank's HELLO AGAIN and has since gone on to be a successful Broadway producer (LITTLE WOMEN). When looking for a theatre to partner with in the development of THE JAZZ AGE, Robbins came back to The Blank.

The production will be directed by Michael Matthews, and Grammy Award winner Ian Whitcomb and his Bungalow Boys will accompany the play with an original score by Whitcomb.

Macfarlane is best known for his role as Scotty on ABC's Brothers & Sisters. His stage credits include The Busy World Is Hushed, Where Do We Live? among other works.

The Blank Theatre Company is located at 6500 Santa Monica Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90038.

For tickets or more information call 323-661-9827 or visit www.TheBlank.com.

Luke MacFarlane and Heather Prete

Heather Prete

Heather Prete

Luke MacFarlane

Jeremy Gabriel and Luke MacFarlane

Luke MacFarlane and Jeremy Gabriel

Luke MacFarlane and Jeremy Gabriel

Luke MacFarlane and Jeremy Gabriel

Luke MacFarlane and Heather Prete

Luke MacFarlane and Heather Prete

Jeremy Gabriel

Heather Prete and Jeremy Gabriel

Jeremy Gabriel

Luke MacFarlane and Jeremy Gabriel

Playbill.com - 07/Feb/2009

[Source]
The Jazz Age, with "Brothers and Sisters" Star Macfarlane, Begins CA Run Feb. 7
By Andrew Gans
07 Feb 2009

Luke Macfarlane as F. Scott 

Fitzgerald in The Jazz Age.

Photo by Rick Baumgartner

The Blank Theatre Company in association with Jana Robbins Productions present the West Coast Premiere of The Jazz Age beginning Feb. 7 at The Blank's 2nd Stage Theatre in Hollywood, CA.

Directed by Michael Matthews, Allan Knee's play will officially open Feb. 12. Performances will continue through March 22.

Luke Macfarlane, who plays Scotty Wandell on ABC's "Brothers and Sisters," heads the cast as F. Scott Fitzgerald with Jeremy Gabriel as Ernest Hemingway and Heather as Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald. Ian Whitcomb and his Bungalow Boys accompany the play with an original score by Grammy winner Whitcomb.

"F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway. Zelda Fitzgerald," read The Jazz Age press notes. "Literary history's most intriguing characters. This sexy new play goes inside their minds to fantasize on the question of 'inspiration.' Punctuated by the pulsating beat of a live musical trio, The Jazz Age asks the compelling question 'Why do we do what we do?'"

Show times are Thursday-Saturday at 8 PM and Sunday at 2 PM.

Tickets, priced $22-$28, are available by calling (323) 661-9827 or by visiting www.TheBlank.com. The Blank's 2nd Stage Theatre is located at 6500 Santa Monica Boulevard (on Theatre Row, between Highland and Vine at Wilcox) in Hollywood, CA.

Luke Macfarlane as F. Scott Fitzgerald (l.) and Heather Prete as Zelda Fitzgerald in 

The Jazz Age. 

photo by Rick Baumgartner

AfterElton - 02/Feb/2009

[Source]
Ask the Flying Monkey (February 03, 2009)
Posted by Brent Hartinger on February 2, 2009

Q: Being a major Luke Macfarlane fan, I’m really looking forward to the CBC miniseries Iron Road. Any info you can find on CBC's plans for this project would have me groveling at your feet. -- Larry H., Houston, TX

Charlotte Sullivan (left) and Luke MacFarlane in a scene from

A: There’s definitely a lot of conflicting information out there about the miniseries in which Brothers & Sisters’ Luke Macfarlane plays a straight character, co-starring with Peter O’Toole and Sam Neill. The show has already aired on Spanish and Italian television, but according to the Canadian Broadcasting Network, which spent $18 million producing the six-parter, they haven’t yet scheduled it for airing in North America.