So I did a simple substitution in dialog to make it link with
libcurses.3:

%s/wnoutrefresh/wrefresh/
%s/scroll (\([^)]*\))/wscrl (\1, 1)/

It links and mostly works.  However, --menu, --checklist and
--radiolist (i.e. menu boxes) do not display correctly.  E.g., when I
do:

$ dialog --checklist 'This is a test of the emergency broadcasting system.' 13 20 4 a b 0 c d 0 e f 0 g h 0

I see:

                            lqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqk
                            x  This is a test of   x
                            x  the emergency       x
                            x  broadcasting        x
                            x  system.             x
                            x lqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqk x
                                    [ ] a  b        
                                    [ ] c  d        
                                    [ ] e  f        
                                    [ ] g  h        
                            tqmqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqjqu
                            x<  OK  >      <Cancel>x
                            mqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqj

rather than:

                            lqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqk
                            x  This is a test of   x
                            x  the emergency       x
                            x  broadcasting        x
                            x  system.             x
                            x lqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqk x
                            x x     [ ] a  b     x x
                            x x     [ ] c  d     x x
                            x x     [ ] e  f     x x
                            x x     [ ] g  h     x x
                            tqmqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqjqu
                            x<  OK  >      <Cancel>x
                            mqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqj

(Yah, the box drawing characters don't paste right.)