New Oak Theatre launches its 2026–27 season with four very different shows — and gives Seven Hills Spotlight readers another good reason to plan a weekend in Savannah.

Every once in a while, “Worth the Drive” gets a little personal.

My son Chase and daughter-in-law Sarah launched New Oak Theatre in Savannah last year, and I’ll admit right up front that Kim and I don’t exactly qualify as impartial theatre critics where this particular company is concerned.

But here’s the thing: these really are shows worth putting on your radar.

A lot of folks in the Seven Hills community watched Chase grow up on local stages — performing with Rome Little Theatre and in Sam Baltzer’s R.O.M.E. productions. Theatre has been part of his life for a long time, and it has been pretty special watching that journey lead all the way to helping create a theatre company of his own in Savannah.

And Savannah may not be quite as far away from Rome as we sometimes make it sound.

Okay... it’s not exactly Calhoun.

But plenty of us already head to Savannah for a long weekend, a wedding, a visit with family, a few days on Tybee, or simply because sometimes you need Spanish moss, pecan pralines, shrimp and grits, and an excuse to walk around carrying a drink.

If Savannah is already on your calendar, why not add a really good show while you’re there?

New Oak Theatrehas announced a 2026–27 season at The Starland Playhouse, and they have put together a lineup with a little bit of everything.

First Up: She Loves Me

November 20–December 13

The season opens with one of musical theatre’s great romantic comedies.

She Loves Me takes us to a 1930s Budapest perfumery, where two co-workers spend much of their time getting on each other’s nerves.

There’s just one problem.

Neither realizes that the anonymous pen pal they have been falling in love with through a series of passionate letters is the person standing right there in front of them.

That ought to go well.

With a score by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick and a book by Joe Masteroff, She Loves Me is charming, funny and unapologetically romantic — a particularly nice choice for the holiday season.

Barefoot in the Park

January 29–February 21

Then New Oak moves from Budapest to a tiny New York apartment for Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park.

Newlyweds Corie and Paul Bratter are discovering one of marriage’s little secrets:

Falling in love is one thing.

Living together in a small apartment is something else entirely.

Corie is spontaneous. Paul is considerably less so. Add a quirky neighbor, a meddling mother and all the little indignities of newlywed life, and Neil Simon does what Neil Simon does best.

He makes ordinary human aggravation extremely funny.

If you like a good old-fashioned comedy where the laughs come from recognizable people behaving exactly like recognizable people, this one should be a lot of fun.

Next to Normal

March 19–April 11

Then the season takes a dramatic turn.

Next to Normal is a Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning rock musical centered on a mother struggling with bipolar disorder and the enormous effect her illness has on the family around her.

This is not lightweight musical theatre.

The show confronts grief, depression, suicide, medication, psychiatry, addiction and the often messy reality hiding behind the front doors of seemingly ordinary suburban families.

But it does so with a powerful contemporary score by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey.

It is the kind of musical that can leave an audience sitting quietly for a moment after the lights come up — which is often the mark of theatre doing exactly what theatre is supposed to do.

Long Day’s Journey Into Night

May 7–May 30

And finally, New Oak closes the season with one of the giants of American drama.

Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night follows the Tyrone family through a single August day in 1912.

Over those hours, old wounds reopen, resentments surface and a family struggles with addiction, illness, disappointment and the uncomfortable truths they know about one another.

It won both the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize, and there is a reason it continues to be produced nearly 70 years after its premiere.

It is not necessarily a cheerful night at the theatre.

It is, however, one heck of a play.

Maybe Savannah Is the New “Worth the Drive”

One of the things we want to do with Seven Hills Spotlight is remind folks that our arts community doesn’t end at the Floyd County line.

Sometimes there is something terrific happening in Cartersville, Cedartown, Chattanooga or Atlanta.

And sometimes it is in Savannah.

Atlanta certainly offers an enormous amount of theatre, but by the time you fight the traffic, find a parking deck and figure out which Peachtree Street you are actually standing on, you may begin questioning some of your life choices.

Savannah presents another possibility.

Make a weekend out of it.

Have a good dinner. Walk the historic district. Head out to Tybee. Enjoy Savannah.

And then catch a show.

For Kim and me, New Oak Theatre is unquestionably Worth the Drive.

But I suspect some of you may discover that it is worth the drive for you, too.

New Oak Theatre’s 2026–27 season will be presented at The Starland Playhouse in Savannah.

Learn more and find tickets at NewOakTheatre.org.