Come on. You know you like cartoons, no matter how old you are. And you like classical music, even if you don't know it: For about 75 years, cartoons have been using this music in many of their soundtracks.

"Bugs Bunny on Broadway," a production of cartoons and live classical music, created and conducted by George Daugherty, will take the stage at the Landmark Theater on Saturday night and prove the case. The Richmond Symphony Orchestra will provide the music.

Daugherty's creation has been presented to hundreds of crowds on various continents to grand receptions.

"We're the only company to sell out the Sydney [Australia] Opera House for four full weeks," Daugherty said. "When we played the Kremlin Palace in Moscow, we drew more than 100,000 over the run of the show. And these were people who had never even seen a Warner Brothers cartoon. When The New York Times reviewed the show, they gave it 'four carrots up.'"

A classical music conductor who has led the likes of London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra, Daugherty, when speaking of this production, brings a passion that one usually would not expect. It's a one-of-a-kind experience that nails down the cartoon-classical music relationship.

"Back in the early days of Warner Brothers, animation director Chuck Jones was the man," Daugherty said. "He was the co-creator of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig. And among his solo creations were Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Pepé Le Pew and many others.

"He was a brilliant creator with a brain that fit. He often said that Bugs Bunny was the love child of Dorothy Parker and Oscar Wilde," Daugherty said. "And he was meticulous in his work, even though they were 'just' cartoons."

Just cartoons, indeed. A six-minute cartoon could use up to 5,000 separate animation drawings.

"Now things are a bit different, obviously," Daugherty said. "With our concert, for example, you'll see wires and headphones and other electrical devices on the stage and around the theater. But we keep it all in the background as much as possible to let the visuals and the music carry the show."

Techno savvy makes possible many of the elements in the program. But the homage to the original creators is very important to Daugherty.

"I grew up with these cartoons, as did many of us," Daugherty said. "But it wasn't until the late 1980s that I realized how important they were in our culture. And I don't say 'pop' culture, because I believe that the cartoons themselves are as quintessentially American as jazz and tap dancing."

You can see for yourselves on Saturday exactly what's up, doc. wamacker@timesdispatch.com.