Who’s who

Peter LeDonne changed how the theatre is sold. He started as a freelancer at Blaine Thompson, the theatrical advertising agency, and was its creative director within a year. Five years later he and Jeffrey Ash, his best friend from college, opened Ash/LeDonne, which grew to offices in New York, Los Angeles, London and Boston and worked on more than 1,000 Broadway and Off-Broadway productions.

In 1973 he proposed something no one had tried: filming a number from the show itself for a television commercial. The sixty-second spot for Bob Fosse’s Pippin, shot in one day with one camera, brought a new audience to Broadway and helped stretch the life of a hit from months to years. Beyond the theatre, Ash/LeDonne’s clients included Frank Sinatra, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Diana Ross, Liza Minnelli, Stevie Wonder and Elton John, along with Radio City Music Hall and Universal Studios.

He was among the first Americans invited to the Soviet Union to film its dance companies, folk troupes and the Moscow Circus. The films promoted their American tours, and the agency went on to represent the Bolshoi, the Kirov, the Moiseyev, Alvin Ailey, American Ballet Theatre, the Joffrey and Dance Theatre of Harlem.

As a producer, his stage work includes Groucho: A Life in Revue in the West End, later seen nationally on PBS, Mack & Mabel in London, and Paradise Square on Broadway in 2022. On film, in partnership with Steve Kalafer, he produced Curtain Call and Sister Rose’s Passion, both nominated for Academy Awards, and Barrymore, starring Christopher Plummer. He directed One Angry Man and The Diary of Immaculee.

His advertising work has been recognised with the Clio, the Andy, the International Broadcasting Award, the Big Apple Award and the London International Advertising Award. He hosted the radio program Backstage with Peter LeDonne on AM 970 in New York, and has long supported the Actors Fund, the American Theatre Wing, Young Audiences and Arts Horizons.

This column draws on his memoir in progress, Without Commercial Interruption.