[This] godson of "Hair" never quite makes it. ["Dude"'s] pretensions are always clearer than its achievements, yet even those pretensions are not without a certain naiveté that might endear the show to some…. [Those] wonderful folks who gave us "Hair," here give us a brave try.

[Here] the lack of discipline to that imagination, a freedom that proved so charming in "Hair," chains the musical down instead of liberating it. In "Hair" the very aimlessness of the piece, its random poetry and shafts of insight could afford the luxury of a nonstructure because it was describing a life style that deliberately embraced nonstructured patterns as its aim. "Dude," on the other hand, seems to be an allegory about "that great theater in the sky," and an allegory that is not clear, even on its primary level, is in no end of trouble.

The idea of "Dude," or...