The Preston Sturges movie, "Hail the Conquering Hero," may have been fun, but the new musical based on it is a dud.

"The Conquering Hero" … has the usual components of a routine assembly job. There are songs, dances, a few jokes and a lot of plot….

Whatever the virtues of the Preston Sturges film script may have been, Larry Gelbart's book is weighed down with incident. It is handled conventionally….

It is possible that an appealing musical could have been hammered out of the tale of the young fellow who comes home masquerading as a hero of Guadalcanal. It is even possible that something fresh and ingratiating could have been done with the business of his running for Mayor and his final public confession of fraud. But "The Conquering Hero" chose a heavy-handed approach most of the way—including the saccharine nobility at the end.

Howard Taubman, "The...