A whirling combination of lilting tunes, vagabonds, sentiment, and flop-house philosophy makes Pipe Dream one of the year's top musicals. It's almost as if Rogers and Hammerstein conspired to confuse the audience, making it nearly impossible to pick one song over another to hum after the show. If you prefer catchy melodies, they are there; if you want the "Some Enchanted Evening" type, they are there too. Although many of the songs could reach the Hit Parade on their own merit, each is smoothly slipped into the stage antics of the Cannery Row characters, taken from Steinbeck's novel, Sweet Thursday.

The unassuming hero of this leisurely, likeable group is the Doc, played powerfully by bearded William Johnson, who, incidentally, gives his best singing performance to date. The Doc likes to putter around with biological specimens which he captivates in his homemade "Western Bio Laboratory." The most unmanageable turns out to be lovely Judy Tyler (Suzy), who makes a winning debut with her fine voice and appealing stage presence.

As the girl with no home, Miss Tyler is taken under the care of Helen Traubel (Fauna), the kindly proprietor and procurer for the Bear Flag Cafe, which serves up any number of interesting dishes. Miss Traubel handles her role as well as her charges, and her full voice only occasionally fails to cross the footlights. She puts a hefty bounce into her lines and succeeds in her match-making, legal and otherwise.

Only slightly less decorous characters are the boys of the Palace Flop-house, the Doc's friends and Fauna's customers. Their routines, especially the Bum's Opera, provide the best humor of the evening. Even with large numbers on stage the dancing is handled neatly, and Mike Kellin ("Hazel") and G. D. Wallace (Mac) both fit the pattern well with their clever patter.

The plot itself is an almost over-simplified version of the boy-meets-girl story. Although a full blooded villain might have given the book an added dash of interest, it is a charming treatment of gentle ruffians, and, fittingly enough, gives the melodies the dominant role. "All Kinds of People," "Sweet Thursday," "All At Once You Love Her," and "The Man I Used To Be" are all in the best Rogers and Hammerstein tradition. Some of the catchy tunes include "The Tide Pool," "A Lopsided Bus" and "The Party That We're Gonna Have Tomorrow Night."

Before the company goes to New York there will probably be minor changes in the book; sharpening the slowly paced scenes at the end of Act One would be helpful. But there is no Pipe Dream about its success.