Ad Astra have opened their new home on Petrie Terrace with a production of Stephen Sondheim’s fairytale musical Into The Woods, featuring a large cast of talented independent artists.
First performed on Broadway in 1987, with music and lyrics by Sondheim and book by James Lapine, Into the Woods is both a fractured fairytale and a morality play. Weaving together multiple Brothers Grimm stories, the musical explores the “after” of happily ever afters, in which the characters’ wishes have been granted. Jack returns from the beanstalk with wealth beyond imagining, Cinderella and Rapunzel marry their princes, and the baker and his wife break the curse and have a child. But there are consequences to their actions and desires, and the second half of the musical pulls on these threads to explore responsibility, retribution, and redemption.
Into the Woods was performed at Ad Astra’s new home at 210 Petrie Terrace, formerly the base of Brisbane Arts Theatre. The 151-seat proscenium arch theatre has been christened Galaxy as part of the Ad Astra constellation of spaces (which also include the Pluto black box theatre and the Cosmos foyer).
Directed by Tim Hill, with musical direction by Ben Murray, Ad Astra’s production of Into The Woods was a showcase of local talent, with a cast of seventeen as well as the musicians, who were visible as they performed Sondheim’s score live on the stage’s perimeter.
Set design by Tim Hill, with Scenic Artist Aimee Sheather, included a multipurpose backdrop draped with vines that served as the woods, the town, the palace, and more. Characters entered from the aisle as well as from the wings of the stage, and choreography by Tess Hill made good use of a shallow space, maintained dynamism on the stage, and frequently added to the comedy of the work.
Costuming by Tess Hill and Jem Hill used different fabric textures to distinguish between the characters’ backgrounds, and Cinderella’s stepmother and stepsisters’ corset-style bodices and hoop skirt structures were especially interesting.
Lighting design by Andrew “Panda” Haden saturated the stage in dramatic colours, and created the effect of light dappled through leaves in the woods. Sound design by John Taylor (JTAP) supported the magical and supernatural elements of the musical alongside the live performance of the score.
Stephen Hirst played The Baker, anxious and uncertain, and Heidi Enchelmaier played his far more practical and cynical wife, although the blocking of her death was not entirely clear.
Carla Beard was a cheerful and distracted Little Red Riding Hood, and James Shaw was a charismatic narrator. Alex Watson played a wide-eyed and eager Jack, with Aurélie Roque as his exhausted, exasperated mother.
Elliot Baker and Jaya were a comedic standout as the Princes, melodramatic and camp, and Baker’s doll-like physicality was especially funny. These were balanced by Natasha Veselinovic’s commanding performance as the Witch, often offering the moral voice of the musical.
Ad Astra’s Into The Woods marked the beginning of a new era: a large-scale production and cast to match their new, larger venue, but crafted and performed with the same intensity and dedication that audiences have come to expect from this top-notch Brisbane independent.
Into The Woods was performed at Galaxy Theatre, Petrie Terrace, from 24 September – 18 October 2025
For further information, visit the Ad Astra website
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