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By Eddie Parsons

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Yanna Avis is a magical person blessed with equal parts physical beauty and inner beauty. The kind of woman who reminds you of an elegance that has been lost in modern society but a kindness and intelligence that is very much present. I have known Yanna for years and witnessed her navigate the sophisticated politics of international crowds in multiple languages without losing the everyday realness that would inspire her to hold an in depth conversation with someone who might be working at one of the many social events her busy schedule allows. Her audience has included Liza Minnelli, John Guare, Arlene Dahl, authors such as Dominick Dunne and legendary socialites such as Daisy Soros, Pat Buckley, Ivana Trump, Nan Kempner, Taki Theorocopulos, Carolyne Roehm and legendary record executive Clive Davis. Or you may find politicos such as Vernon Jordan or fashion royalty’s Mary McFadden, Carolina & Reinaldo Herrera and actual royalty Princess Firyal of Jordan. It is only fitting that this Renaissance Lady would title her latest cabaret show at 54 Below “Make Some Magic.” I sat down with “La Chantouze” to find out a little more about what drives her in this mission to entertain, inspire and bewitch…

Read The Full Interview With Yanna Avis

 

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theaterlife.com | June 4, 2015

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French chanteuse Yanna Avis will return to 54 Below, Broadway’s Supper Club, with her new show Make Some Magic on Thursday, June 18 at 9:30PM. Her previous appearance in April sold-out completely.

Make Some Magic takes the audience on a romantic journey through the landscape of love in Yanna’s signature continental cabaret style. She says, “No matter where it is, no matter what the language is, the feeling is always the same! I believe in the power of a love-song, even when it is only a dream or…an illusion!”

A noted stage and television French actress before she came to the United States, Avis is a chanteuse in the European style;her sets, peppered with French, English, Spanish, Italian and German songs sizzle in any time zone and her unique style of international cabaret has made her a must-see in some of the most prestigious rooms around the world including New York’s Feinstein at the Regency, Café Carlyle and London’s Jermyn Street Theatre.

After maestro Gian Carlo Menotti heard her album Easy Come, Easy Go he invited her to sing at Italy’s famed Spoleto Music Festival becoming the first cabaret performer invited to the legendary festival, and after overwhelming success, was asked to return to perform at the “Cafe Chantant” on the Piazza.

Ms. Avis was trained at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Paris. She performed in various productions both classical and contemporary, including John Guare’s House of Blue Leaves and Boeing-Boeing and appeared in films and plays on French television.

Yanna’s third album Speak Love to Me under the musical direction of Lee Musiker was released March 2009 and is available in selected stores and on the internet at CD Baby, iTunes, Rhapsody, and Amazon as well as her own website at http://www.yannaavis.com.

Yanna Avis plays 54 Below (254 West 54th Street) on Thursday,June 18th at 9:30 PM. Cover charge starts at $25 and there is a $25 food and beverage minimum. Tickets and information are available at www.54Below.com.

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May 21,2015

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Yanna Avis will return to 54 Below, Broadway’s Supper Club, with her new show Make Some Magic on Thursday, June 18 at 9:30PM. Her previous appearance in April sold-out completely.

Make Some Magic takes the audience on a romantic journey through the landscape of love in Yanna’s signature continental cabaret style. She says, “No matter where it is, no matter what the language is, the feeling is always the same! I believe in the power of a love-song, even when it is only a dream or…an illusion!”

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By  | May 14, 2014

Yanna Avis sings. (Stephen Sorokoff) New York used to be a swinging town after dark. Now it’s just lonely. After dessert is served, the cafes close. After the boring, obligatory standing ovations that end every show in town whether it’s any good or not, the theaters empty and the audience heads home. Back in the day, you could head for a midnight show at any nightclub in Midtown. Now everyone is in bed by 11, watching the news and setting the alarm. New York gets more like L.A. every day, where, as the great Shirley Booth used to say, “No matter how boring it gets during the day … there sure ain’t nothin’ to do at night.”

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By Michael Gross, Avenue Magazine | May 16, 2013

Tonight and Friday at 10:45 PM, Yanna Avis plays the last of her shows this month in the Café Carlyle’s Second Act series of late night performances. The lanky Paris-born chanteuse, best-known to New Yorkers, perhaps, as the widow of Warren Avis of the rent-a-car Avises, tries harder even though she really doesn’t have to. Her sporadic performances around New York have attracted a loyal fan base of stars and sophisticates, including Liza Minnelli and Rex Reed (shown with Avis at a performance earlier this month). They’re lured in by her smokey vocalizations of great cabaret tunes by the likes of Cole Porter, Kurt Weill, Michel Legrand, Cy Coleman and more.

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By David Patrick Columbia, New York Social Diary | May 13, 2013

“Yanna performs in the European tradition of the chanteuse. Neither Marlene Dietrich (although along those lines) nor Piaf, Yanna nevertheless brings their sentiments and emotional intimacy, with her style, to her songs. Her show is for You.

I’ve seen her perform several times. Her repertoire mingles American Songbook with European songs, some of which we know and all of which we get the gist of even if we don’t understand a word. (Sometimes it’s better if you have a good imagination.) Her theme — which is recurring —  is unabashedly sentimental to the American ear, yet sophisticated and effecting. And kind.

This new show which she calls “In Love With Love,” runs for about an hour, and is her best yet. She takes us easily from Vernon Duke’s classic “Taking a Chance on Love” (introduced by Ethel Waters) into Bizet’s “Carmen” and on to Richard Adler and Jerry Ross’ “Whatever Lola Wants (Lola gets)…” backed a great group of musicians and musical director David Shenton at the piano. It features Cole Porter, Larry Hart, Georges Bizet, Adler and Ross, Vernon Duke, Charles Aznavour, Michel LeGrand, Mintinguett and more.

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Yanna Avis, Liza Minelli and Rex Reed at the Carlyle

By , Broadwayworld.com | May 10, 2013

“Yanna Avis makes her Café Carlyle debut with a new show, titled In Love with Love which will feature her usual sophisticated, European cabaret. The program will be multi-lingual from a variety of influences including Cole Porter, Kurt Weill, Friedrich Hollander and other classics. In Love with Love plays through May 16, Thursdays and Fridays at 10:45 p.m. with musical director David Shenton at the piano…”

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By Taylor Harris, Women’s Wear Daily | May 8, 2013

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“Well, I’ve been told it’s husky,” Yanna Avis says, settling into her persimmon wraparound sofa, the centerpiece of the drawing room of her apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side that overlooks Central Park. “I don’t know how I feel about it, but I guess it’s a good thing?” Avis’ voice is husky. It’s textured and smoky, harkening back to the quality of lounge singers of yore who sucked down cigarettes between sets.

“I love the music of the Thirties and Forties, the glamour of it,” she says. “I try to get that glamour into my act.”

Avis has been doing cabaret since 1992, when she made her debut at Eighty-Eight’s in Greenwich Village, and she’s kept things local since then. “I’ve covered almost every spot in New York, from downtown to all the way uptown,” she says. “And now I’ll be performing on the next block.”

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Avis, known as a ‘chanteuse’ whose work is both dramatic and musical, reveals her sense of cabaret that blends theater and story, elegence and costume, with song.

TOM DWORETZKY FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
TOM DWORETZKY FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

BY  , NEW YORK DAILY NEWS — Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Known for her chic and sultry cabaret performances and her “smoky” voice, her sophistication comes from a worldly life. She sings in French, English, Spanish, Italian and German and has toured widely, including performances at Maxim’s in Paris, the Spoleto Festival in Italy, The Jermyn Street Theatre in London, as well as in New York’s Feinstein’s at the Regency, The Metropolitan Room, The Supper Club’s King Kong Room and The Firebird among other venues.

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