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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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s-YANNA-AVIS-largevia Yanna Avis, Cabaret Singer, On Fateful Connections (VIDEO) | Eddie Parsons.

“In my line of work I come across many women who enchant me with what they look like, where they’ve come from and the stories they can tell. What is sometimes rare and exciting, however, is wondering, “Where is she going? What will she achieve? What makes her shine?”

I had the pleasure many years ago of meeting cabaret singer Yanna Avis and although there have been many opportunities to lose communication, I just couldn’t let her go. She is strikingly beautiful, well-traveled and a most gracious hostess. So why would a woman with all of this continue to work so hard on her cabaret career? What drives this woman to open new doors and invite people into her world with a song and a moment? …”

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By Richmond Shepard, Performing Arts Insider | June 14, 2011

YANNA AVIS is a beautiful woman with a pleasant voice and loads of appeal in her performance of songs in French and English (with a touch of German). She exudes a lovely sensuality, and is more of an entertainer than a singer. Sure, she stays on key, but it’s HER that’s important rather than the voice. Some of the performance is in shprichtzimmer, and it works in the context of her musical vocabulary. This show at The Metropolitan Room on W. 34th St. seems to try to create the intimacy of a dimly-lighted room, but I wanted to see more of her— I wanted lighting that reveals and enhances rather than obscures her. Her acting is top-notch, and it infuses her songs, as do her warmth and charm in this very enjoyable trip to the continent.

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By Peter Haas, Cabaret Scenes | June 13, 2011

An accordion begins. Yanna Avis—slim, blonde, sultry—enters in a clinging black dress. Parisian by birth, actress by training and career, she reinvented herself several years ago as a cabaret singer, and in that role made her Metropolitan Room debut in June, in a multilingual program of French, German and American songs.

Familiar numbers included a cheery “C’est si bon,” the lament “Mon homme” (sung in French, known in English as the Fanny Brice hit, “My Man”) and a pairing of Cole Porter’s “You Don’t Know Paree” paired with French composer/singer Léo Ferré’s peppy “Paris Canaille.” Another combination, “My Old Flame” and “I Remember You,” both sung in English, formed a lovely, straightforward change of pace, and her “Charleston” (English lyrics by Fred Ebb), with Avis sporting a top hat, was a delight. However, it was her attempt at other American numbers that missed the mark. With “Bye Bye Blackbird” and the too-cute “I Refuse to Rock and Roll” (the latter by Sammy Cahn and Nicholas Brodsky), she may have wanted to appeal to “local taste,” but, instead, may simply have underestimated the international sophistication of the audience who came to see her.

At moments, pseudo-sexy mannerisms took center stage, as if she were playing at the role of chanteuse. Not necessary: she has international flair, and can relax and rely on it.  Excellent musical direction and piano accompaniment were contributed by David Shenton, with fine backup by David Finck on bass and Patrick Farrell on accordion.

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By Stephen Holden, The New York Times | June 8, 2011

Photo By Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times
Photo By Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

Ah, Paree! As the statuesque French chanteuse Yanna Avis sang Cole Porter’s great ode to the City of Light, “You Don’t Know Paree,” on a recent evening, a composite view of the city as imagined by Balzac, Zola and of course, Porter himself, flickered in my imagination. “Until you’ve lived a lot, and loved a lot, and lost a lot, you don’t know Paree,” go lyrics that Ms. Avis, a soigné international beauty, sang with a wry understanding.

Both Ms. Avis and her show at the Metropolitan Room are throwbacks to a cabaret style that flourished in New York in the 1950s and early ’60s in which traditional glamour and high style were the thing. Nothing must disturb the playfully naughty Folies Bergère spirits in which bittersweet moments are thrown in for contrast. The songs concentrate on appearances and the competitive erotic games indulged in by courtiers in a world of unbounded leisure; the only enemy is boredom.

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By Lynn Dimenna, Cabaret Scenes | October 12, 2009

Yanna Avis has been called a cross between Edith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich and that is certainly a flattering comparison. On the contemporary scene she might remind one of “Uma” or “Ute,” as in Thurman or Lemper, given the equally alluring and mysterious quality they share with the international chanteuse. On stage at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency for the second time this fall, in a magnificent skintight black pants suit with a soft white, flouncy collar and cuffs, she definitely enhanced the beauty and elegance of the room
Sultry and sexy, singing a multi-lingual repertoire that has become her forte, she had the strong support of some very fine sidemen: on accordion Patrick Farrell, bass David Finck and violin/viola Eddie Malave. Her Musical Director, David Shenton, and director, Daniel Isengart, musically and artistically shaped a program that enabled her to work her unique and appealing magic to the delight of her savvy, sophisticated audience.

To be sure, very few “chantoosies” in fishnet stockings covering legs that go on forever can stretch out and caress the top of a Steinway and make it look so natural and effortless. One can sense that Ms. Avis is as comfortable there as she is at a café in Paris or dining at the Ritz! All the songs on her song list, whether in French, Italian, Spanish or German, serve to heighten the “mystique!”

Negotiating off the stage and in and around tightly cramped chairs, however, proved to be a challenge that she might not have anticipated. On the other hand, her foray into the audience provided an opportunity to get a sense of who the real Yanna Avis truly is. Seeing her vulnerable made her a bit less mysterious and that much more likeable.

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Photo By Jeffrey Hirsch/NewYorkSocialDiary.com
Photo By Jeffrey Hirsch/NewYorkSocialDiary.com

By David Patrick Columbia, New York Social Diary | September 30, 2009

“Meanwhile, yesterday in New York. At eight o’clock I went down to Feinstein’s at the Regency to hear my friend Yanna Avis in her debut in that room. Yanna is a chanteuse, “an exotic international chanteuse,” as she’s been described elsewhere.

She’s Parisienne by birth. A number of years ago she married the Rent-a-Car tycoon and industrialist Warren Avis. They cut a wide swath in the international high life here, in Europe and Acapulco where Warren had been a long time resident. Yanna put aside her career in the early part of her marriage. Although encouraged by Warren, she eventually began to pursue and develop it.

I’d seen her perform several times in cabaret, but last night was the first time I’d seen a complete finished act with a set of songs and a theme. And it was like the words Mr. Porter had written, “the bubbles in a glass of champagne ….” A very good time.

La chantouze is how she sometimes signs her notes to me. It also is the theme. The songs are a mixture of some familiar melodies with French lyrics, some familiar old American tunes – not so much the Broadway standards — and a very intimately delivered monologue of the chantouze.

Yanna’s delivery is almost tongue in cheek. She moves. She gets up on the piano, she reclines; she’s back on her to feet and looking right at that spot, that audience of one whom she’s addressing and singing too (when she’s not singing to the rest of us). Her sense of humor is playfully sultry and sometimes self-parodying. Yanna in life has a very sunny disposish. She is very much the femme fatale, but she is also serious, the actress.

People who know her love her for this. Her show was like that. It’s authentic, and last night there were a lot of her friends in the opening audience. They loved her for it.”

 

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Backstage | January 7, 2004

Joie de vivre! On the subject of refinement, international chanteuse and stunning socialite Yanna Avis brought her new show to the King Kong Room for three SRO performances in December. With musical director Dick Gallagher and direction by Thommie Walsh, the carefully crafted set allowed Avis to be the intimate, sexy illusion that she is—à la Dietrich in her prime. In fact, the Dietrich mainstay “Illusions” (Hollander) is a trademark number that defines her brand of flirtatious sex appeal fused with smoky haute-parlor cabaret. She has a soft, quicksilver vibrato that does justice to her ballads and makes them better than they might have been in lesser hands. Whether slithering on top of the piano, seductively teasing a gentleman in the audience, emoting Cole Porter, or vamping in French, Spanish, or German, Yanna Avis recalls an era when bubbly champagne and bubbly people filled nightclubs with elegance and a devil-may-care lifestyle that was once de rigueur in café society.

Her songs of romance and lost love fitted perfectly into her sullen alto as she caressed every lyric with the purr of a cat about to strike. What makes her such a success at her craft is that she never goes beyond her strengths—that, and her commitment to the message of the composer. Avis is classy and elegant, with a playful mystique that is rare. The prominent glitterati crowd of celebrities, intellectuals, and A-list friends cheering on one of their own was evidence that this lovely lady, who wears her music and mystery like a Blackglama, is one of our most beguiling chanteuses to embrace any stage, whether it be at the Spoleto Festival, on the Riviera, or in a gaudy Manhattan nightspot.

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By John Hoglund, Backstage | February 21, 2001

For the past few years, Yanna Avis has worked hard at her craft. She’s offered wonderfully entertaining shows with a lot of panache. Her multilingual songs in tightly knit acts have always recalled images of Dietrich, Piaf, and the tasteful and charming naughty ladies Cole Porter wrote about. Today, this glamorous beauty glided through a sexy, fun hour with joie de vivre to spare.

Avis has had to work through the burdens of her well-known last name and social status to be taken more seriously for what she is, not who she is. And, the results are bravura. With this new show, under two-time Tony-winner Thommie Walsh’s effulgent direction, her intentions and talent will never again be questioned. So, once and for all, let’s forget the last name and treat this hypnotic lady as the triple-threat talent into which she has evolved in one of the season’s best acts.

Always in touch with her strengths, Avis has found her niche as an interpreter of a savoir faire cabaret recalling the beginnings of this time-honored genre. Like a young Dietrich, she, too, has become a master illusionist of intelligent, often silly, sex-ridden images in song and fantasy.

Opening with the rarity “Look Me Over Closely” (which Dietrich recorded, but never performed in public), Avis saunters like a sexy burlesque queen from one end of the caf to the other; arching her back, seductively flirting, she sets the stage for this steamy act. Cole Porter’s “Ça c’est l’amour,” followed by Michel Emer’s “Je m’en fous pas mais,” is almost debauching in its presentation. Remarking that “in sailing over thin water, your safety net is your speed,” she glides through German, Spanish, and French songs that are electrically charged paeans to another era.

Highlights on the night I attended also included “Ten Cents a Dance,” “An Occasional Man,” and “Just a Gigolo.” Each was infused with sex appeal and subtle choreography that cast a spell over the room enhanced by the haunting accordion in her instrumental trio. As she captured every irony of Murray Grand’s “Guess Who I Saw Today?,” it read like a whispered three-act play. Once in fierce control of her emotion and body language, Walsh has managed to strip away Avis’ patrician veneer. Closing with her mainstay, “Parlez-moi d’amour,” Yanna Avis proved she could climb more than just the social ladder. This careful crafted show dispelled any doubts and proved the lady is a winner-in any language. Watch for her return to The FireBird in the fall.

 

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By John Hoglund, Backstage | February 21, 2001

RECALLING A CONTINENTAL-STYLE CABARET long associated with elegant bo”tes of another era, international chanteuse Yanna Avis packed them into the intimate FireBird Cafe last week, in a show directed by Barry Kleinbort. Here she sang of the romance and simple charm of another era. While not the definitive cabaret act or the most accessible performer, Yanna Avis is, in many ways, to cabaret what Cuisinart is to blenders. She is unique, exciting, and razor sharp. Her delivery is always sensitive, hushed, and warm. She also has fun with her audience and, in spite of her sophisticated persona and gazelle-like elegance, doesn’t take herself too seriously.

Avis was particularly effective singing a fiery Argentinean tango called “Fumado Espero,” a smoking romp about waiting for a lover, and a quiet reading of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.” However, this thrush was at her best singing songs from her native Paris, such as Piaf’s haunting “La Vie en Rose” and “Paris Canaille” with brio. Another French song, “Parlez-Moi d’Amour,” about a gigolo, gave the chanteuse another fine moment in this memorable hour. Closing with a perfect reading of the sexy “Illusions” proved to be the perfect cap for this beautiful lady who needs to do more local cabaret.

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