Ron Drotos
Ron Drotos and Friends
Pangea, NYC, October 29, 2026
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg
Ron Drotos is a skilled music arranger, pianist, and accompanist. He has a history on Broadway, in jazz, on the concert stage, and in cabaret. He came to Pangea with some of his good friends to charm and enchant the audience. Luckily, he has some very talented friends. The evening truly felt like a party in his home where some wonderful singers got up to share some funny stories, including how they met the host, and to offer songs he has arranged for them. Each participant performed three numbers, and Drotos including piano solos in between. The format could have felt repetitious, but it didn’t because there was so much personality on stage.
Beyond his musical skills, Drotos is a natural storyteller who possesses a dry wit and a passion for his music. His four solo contributions reflected all aspects of his personality and his life experiences. He had fun exploring the varying rhythms of Chick Corea’s “Armando’s Rhumba,” and his own variations on Johan Pachelbel’s “Canon,” which he transformed into a Scott Joplin-like rag. Celebrating his mentor Billy Taylor, he recreated a challenge the composer had given him to only use his left hand to play a classic songbook song, Jerome Kern’s “All the Things You Are.” Drotos moved halfway through the piece that way before surrendering to the lush original melody for a full-throated rendition. He later closed the evening with Taylor’s own “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” with gospel fervor.
The first of his friends to take the stage was the electric Juliet Ewing. The two were amusingly paired up professionally by their sons, who were school friends. She kicked off her mini-set with a sultry “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most” (Tommy Wolf/Fran Landesman). She transformed Cole Porter’s “Get Out of Town” into an angular jazz tune with unexpected phrasing and some controlled scatting. The best of all came last with a remarkable “Summertime” (George Gershwin/Du Bose Heyward), that grew from a meditative stillness to a full-throated celebration that spread to her body language as well. Ewing is both a splendid singer and a fine actor.
Next up was Dorian Woodruff, whose first number, “Nice and Easy” (Lew Spence/Alan & Marilyn Bergman), perfectly described his style as a rather Southern Sinatra. He shared some delightful stories about his time in Nashville, including one about an encounter with Dolly Parton. He contributed two more moving numbers with “Alone in the World” (Jerry Goldsmith/the Bergmans) and “Fly Away” (Beegie Adair/Lori Mecham).
Finally, the Greek earth mother of cabaret Lina Koutrakos took her turn and demonstrated what made her a fine singer as well as an inventive director. Her boisterous “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby” (Louis Jordan/Billy Austin), interspersed with tales of her relatively new husband, was a great curtain raiser. She followed that with a tightly controlled torch version of “You Go to My Head” (J. Fred Coots/Haven Gillespie) that thrilled in its containment. As she started her next number, Drotos played such an intriguing opening that the singer got lost in it, admitting with a grin “I forgot to sing!” But then sing she did, with a great rave up of “Satan’s Li’l Lamb” (Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer & Yip Harburg).
Drotos does have some lovely friends.
