The Bay Area’s acclaimed Lamplighters Music Theatre, in partnership with the Napa Valley Opera House, presents Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s sweeping musical “Carousel” in concert this weekend.

Featuring Lamplighters’ unparalleled orchestra and a cast of 40, this classic from the golden era of Broadway includes such hallmark songs as “If I Loved You,” “My Boy Bill,” “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” and the gorgeous “Carousel Waltz.”

Dennis Lickteig directs this semi-staged, costumed production with Lamplighters Musical Director Baker Peeples at the baton. Carousel plays Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $40 and $35. 

Set in a small New England seaside town, “Carousel” is the love story of Billy Bigelow, a smooth-talking carnival barker, and Julie Jordan, the spunky local factory worker he seduces. Desperate for money after learning that he and Julie will be parents, Billy attempts a foolish robbery. In a break with musical theater tradition, this hero dies before the show ends, and the action moves to heaven, where he must redeem himself in order to gain entry. When he is allowed to return to Earth for one day, Billy visits his wife and the daughter he never knew, to make amends for the past.

Forging new territory in musical theater storytelling with their extended music and dialogue scenes, both Rodgers and Hammerstein said that “Carousel” was their favorite collaborative work. Considered by many to be one of the best examples of what made the Rodgers and Hammerstein canon so successful, “Carousel” boasts some of Rodgers’ catchiest tunes and a superb, witty script from Hammerstein.

Lamplighters Music Theatre, recognized as one of the top Gilbert and Sullivan companies in the world, is one of the oldest continuously performing theaters in the Bay Area, and the only year-round musical theater company in San Francisco. Since the company’s founding in 1952, Lamplighters has been dedicated to upholding the tradition of light opera and musical theater, particularly through the production of the operettas of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. The company has produced the entire Gilbert and Sullivan canon as well as other light opera and musical theater classics such as “The Merry Widow,” “Die Fledermaus,” “Of Thee I Sing,” “My Fair Lady,” “Candide,” and “A Little Night Music.”

‘Carousel’

Napa Valley Opera House

Saturday, April 21 at 8 p.m.

Sunday, April 22 at 2 p.m.

Tickets: $40 and $35

Box office: 226-7372