"Burn the Floor" is a show with a single focus - dance, dance, dance … with drums, drums, drums.
(Bam, bam, bam…)
There's no dialog, no story to summarize . . . and quite correctly, it's marketed as a "Broadway Production" rather than "a musical." In fact, there's nobody in the orchestra pit, just a pair of alternating singers and two percussionists with enormous drum kits up on stage, providing an aggressive beat for one energetic dance number after another, many with a Latin flavor.
(more percussion)
The costumes display plenty of flesh, and the choreography favors sexy innuendo and heated confrontation over dreamy romance. One darkly suggestive number has four bare-chested guys, lubed with baby oil, circling a single blindfolded woman. Others scenes occur late at night in a club, with stylized shoving and face slapping.
With song titles like "The Dirty Boogie," this show is a long way from the gracious top-hat-and-tuxedo style of Fred Astaire.
The show's energy is remarkable, and many performances are impressive. But with one taut, athletic number leading into another, I started feeling like I was watching one of those NFL highlight films where they splice a weekend of spectacular catches into one long montage. A bit less relentless drive, and touch more tenderness, plus more variety in the music, might have turned this muscular production into an even more appealing show.