By the second or third song in Twyla Tharp’s Come Fly Away, viewers will likely accept that it has no real storyline. The best approach is to just enjoy the furious dancing and classic tunes. Imagine that a liquored-up championship ballroom troupe has teamed up with Victoria’s Secret and Frank Sinatra’s ghost.

The Civic Theatre stage was a nightclub filled with lustful patrons and a kickass 14-piece band. Frank Sinatra’s voice was crystal clear, and his songs never felt dated or too old. You could almost forget that he’s been gone for years. Four couples, reshaped from Tharp’s 1982 dance, Nine Sinatra Songs, cut lose for 80 solid minutes.

Their characters were shallow, boozy stereotypes with little to do but flirt and grope each other. After an hour, dances started to blur together and look the same. There were no stars or leads. On Tuesday's opening night,Ron Todorowski as Marty, the dopey barkeep, was a charmer with his flops and flips in the realm of Dick Van Dyke. He was smitten with the childlike Betsy, danced by Mallauri Esquibel, who started out with a sweet tulip skirt and had only pink lingerie by the end. Poor Marty tried to steal a kiss and smooched another guy instead. It was achingly stupid, but Sinatra singing “Let’s Fall in Love”sounded great. So did the band, a powerhouse that drove the entire program with 27 musical numbers.

Meredith Miles danced the role of Babe, a blond bombshell in red who had everyone under her spell in “Witchcraft.” She stepped over men and stretched into a vertical extension that literally drew gasps from the crowd. Women were probably wondering about dumb things like shaving. Miles also impressed with pique turns in “I like to Lead When I Dance,” after her inverted partner Sid, danced by Cody Green, hopped on his hands in full handstand to the beat.

Tharp’s vocabulary is physically demanding and technically complex. Just watching it is exhausting. While many in the audience seemed to enjoy the burlesque lifts best – women riding on men’s shoulders and twirling like helicopters – one couldn’t miss the troupe’s fine ballet foot work and solid cores.

Tharp is a prolific and genius choreographer (she won the MacArthur genius grant), and she has a thing for Sinatra. She calls her programs made out of songs “dancicals.” She won two Tonys for Movin’ Out and it ran for three years on Broadway. The show was set to all Billy Joel tunes that set up a narrative about the Viet Nam War. She tried the same thing with Bob Dylan tunes. The Times They Are A Changin’ ran for about a month.

Come Fly Away was at its best an entertaining dance showcase and a tribute to Sinatra. Sinatra’s lyrics didn’t offer the same framework as Joel’s storytelling songs.The only character worth caring about in Come Fly Away was the slutty drunk Kate, danced by Marceea Moreno. She had the perfect Barbie body and got all of the men, but ended up crawling across the stage. She and her partner, Hank, danced by Martin Harvey, cut through the fluff in the combative, body slamming “That’s Life,” (one of the few numbers from Tharp’s Sinatra Suite from years ago to make it into this show). It was full throttle and unforgettable.