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Entertaining 'Floor Play' suffers from repetition
Dance can be elegant. Or acrobatic. Or celebratory. Or dramatic. Or it can be sensual, as it is in Burn the Floor presents Floor Play.
And make no mistake: Floor Play, which runs through Sept. 1 at the Tropicana, is plenty sensual, thanks to a super-attractive ensemble of dancers from around the world (usually half-) dressed in sexy threads and performing choreography that is often erotic, but never trashy or vulgar.
And that's a good thing. But, as we all know, you can have too much of a good thing. As interesting, entertaining and well-executed as Floor Play may be, a little variety could have made this something special.
Each of the individual sequences tend to be slight variations of the same theme -- a piece of pop music (swing, blues, world) provides the context for the cast of 16 dancers (eight male-female pairs) and two singers to strut their undeniably impressive stuff to the sure-footed schemes conceived by director-choreographer Jason Gilkison.
Which means by about the halfway mark of the 70-minute program, the audience has pretty much seen whatever Floor Play has to offer.
Exacerbating this are a couple of hurdles that could have easily been overcome. One is the emphasis on '40s-style swing music, which means there is more heel-flopping, skirt-flouncing jitterbugging in the show than is really necessary.
Another is that the jump standard, "Ding Dong Daddy," is not only performed twice, but each rendition is served up with an immediate reprise -- which begs two questions:
Doesn't the Casino Control Commission have a regulation that mandates the maximum number of times "Ding Dong Daddy" can be done in a casino revue?
What, the creators couldn't think of two other songs?
Finally, Floor Play which, not-so-incidentally, boasts a crackerjack, percussion-heavy onstage band, could benefit greatly by having a mid-show comedy turn, just to add another look. At the very least, there could be some sort of comedy/novelty dance number, which would also provide both a change of pace and a lighter element in what is mostly a pretty serious, straightforward production.
But that doesn't mean Floor Play isn't a colorful, energetic and fun-to-watch pageant that should be seen by those with an interest in this kind of entertainment. It simply means that what could have been a home run is instead a solid double.
Show times are 8 p.m. Saturday, Monday and Thursday; 7 p.m. Sunday; 3:30 and 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. Admission is $25. For tickets and information, call (609) 340-4020 or go to www.tropicana.net.
In memoriam
No one could have known it at the time, but the June 17 Atlantic City Hilton performance by Frank Sinatra Jr. has, sadly, turned out to be a historic date in the annals of Atlantic City entertainment: the night of Bill Miller's last AyCee performance.
Miller, who died July 11 in Montreal at age 91 of heart attack-related complications, was Frank Sinatra's pianist for all but a few years between 1951 and 1994, when health problems caused the pop icon's retirement.
That means Mr. Miller wasn't just an Atlantic City casino regular, but also backed Sinatra during the years he gigged at the legendary 500 Club in the pre-legal gaming era of the 1950s and '60s.
The silver-maned keyboardist had performed the same role for the younger Sinatra, whose tribute to his late father remains an Atlantic City favorite, since shortly after the latter's death in 1998.
Our condolences go to those closest to him.
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