Patti LuPone interview (The Telegraph)

The outspoken Broadway star on Beau Is Afraid, the ‘dumbing down’ of theatre – and the problem with standing ovations

“You wanna know about the penis monster?” asks Patti LuPone. The 74-year-old doyenne of Broadway is referring to one of many surreal characters in Beau Is Afraid, a three-hour-long Freudian nightmare of a film from Midsommar director Ari Aster. As Mona, the mind-bendingly manipulative mother of Joaquin Phoenix’s anxiety-ridden Beau, LuPone steals every scene in which she appears – at least until, towards the end of the film, a giant, animatronic phallus rears its head.