A long-absent friend has taken up temporary residence in Coronado: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s wonderful old chestnut South Pacific, in a reworked version at Lamb’s Players Theatre, reminds us of the good old days when wars were just and musical comedies tuneful.

Director Deborah Gilmour Smyth relocates the setting to a Navy ship, reorders the music and reduces the orchestra to a six-man combo to accommodate spatial limitations of the Paul and Ione Harter stage, and probably also to accommodate financial limitations of the theater, which recently acquired a second venue. (Lamb’s has just been named resident theater company at the new Joan B. Kroc Theatre.)

The source of South Pacific is a series of short stories by James Michener, based on his observations while serving in the military there during World War II. The main characters include a passel of American sailors and Navy nurses, local resident Emile de Becque (Stephen Godwin), a French planter with a shadowy past, entrepreneur extraordinaire Bloody Mary and her gorgeous Eurasian daughter Liat.

This version opens with the blockbuster “Bloody Mary”, introducing standout Linda Libby with her “fo’ dolla” shrunken heads and promises of Shangri-la on the nearby island of Bali Ha’i. Libby is a great comic actress and a welcome addition to this production.

South Pacific stars two sets of lovers, both considered daring for this socially and culturally intolerant time (1949). Lt. Cable (David S. Humphrey) falls in love with Liat (Sandra Flores); and Ens. Nellie Forbush from Little Rock (Erika Beth Phillips) tries unsuccessfully to wash de Becque (father of two Eurasian beauties of his own) out of her hair.

South Pacific has everything – humor, tragedy, pathos, two gorgeous little kids (Michaela Chavez and Kaylind Batey) and some terrific costumes, especially for the “Honey Bun” chorus.

But those songs! They’re what has made this show a standard in the musical comedy repertoire. “Bali Ha’i”, “Some Enchanted Evening” and my favorite, the risky hymn to tolerance “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught” are all sung with panache and sincerity, if not great vocal power. Humphrey, Phillips and Godwin all have good voices, though all seem a bit thin to me (but comparing anyone to Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza is inherently unfair). Rescoring the orchestral part for a small combo doesn’t always work as well as I’d have liked, either.

Still, the production is lively, the actors excellent and the songs incomparable. If the production doesn’t quite make it to musical Bali Ha’i, well, that’s all right too. You’ve got to have a dream.