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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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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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