'Burn The Floor' Review

‘Burn The Floor’ was first conceived as a special performance at Sir Elton John’s 50th birthday celebrations in 1997, and after touring over 30 countries and 160 cities and a successful stint on Broadway, it opened on the West End last night to rapturous applause from an audience compiled of critics and celebrities.

Capitalising on the popularity of TV programme ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, last season’s pair Brian Fortuna and Ali Bastian are labelled the special guest stars. No doubt this will prompt those who enjoyed watching Fortuna and Bastian’s relationship develop on the programme to snap up tickets for this show. However, although the billboards promote these two, their appearances are merely cameo ones.

This though is not a bad thing. Understandably throughout the show Bastian, as an untrained dancer, is out of her depth, and the two serve more to rally the crowd than to provide the dancing expertise.

And although I’ll leave the judging of the dancing to the infamously hard-to-please ‘Strictly’ judge Craig Revel Horwood, who was sitting just two rows back, from an ordinary audience member’s point of view the dancing was phenomenal.

Without a running plotline, each dance told its own story, whether it be the sensual Rumba, the powerful Paso Doble or the upbeat Quickstep. Switching from one dance to another instantaneously, the crowd was left aghast, blown away by the captivating whirlwind of action on stage and left tantalised by the carnival of colour, the ostentatious outfits and the riveting routines.

It was literally foot-tapping stuff with PR Guru Max Clifford going one further as he was spotted nodding his head ferociously throughout as if he was extremely keen to get up on stage and join in. And it was not long before the whole crowd did join the party when they rose to their feet to give the excellent show and dancers a standing ovation come the conclusion.
 
Without a doubt though, and not to take anything away from the magical dancers who performed non-stop for nearly two hours, the real stars of the show were the vocalists, Rebecca Tapia and Ricky Rojas, with the former lighting up the stage with each of her songs.

Overall, I would recommend the show for any ‘Strictly’ fan who wants to see the story of Fortuna and Bastian’s relationship continue. For any dance fanatic who could appreciate the skill of the performers. And merely for anyone who wants to be entertained, that is provided you have not got a heart problem as the show is a non-stop adrenaline ride!

Rating: 5/5

'Burn The Floor' is on at The Shaftesbury Theatre, London until the 4th September. Tickets are on-sale now.