Kendall resident Michael Rosenberg is making a 60-second video in hopes of being named Broadway’s Biggest Fan. He plays The Phantom of the Opera on his seven-foot Steinway, surrounded by hundreds of Broadway Playbills. He says he has attended more than 330 Broadway productions over the past 50 years.
Rosenberg grew up in Mount Sterling, Kentucky, where he started a neighborhood newspaper at a young age and sold copies door-to-door for two cents each. He wrote his first letter to the editor at 12, criticizing neglected properties in town. He later studied piano at the University of Kentucky and earned a master’s degree in music at the University of Miami. He taught piano until a toddler who refused to sleep led him to write personalized lullabies. The songs became a business, and Huggies used them in a nationwide promotion.
That business led to Imagine Your Photos, which Rosenberg started in 1991. The company now makes more than 200 personalized products, from mugs to puzzles, for major retailers.
Rosenberg is also known locally for persistent advocacy. He challenged an AMC theater popcorn policy that carried his complaint to corporate headquarters. In 2012, he spent 55 hours in a cage at Miami-Dade Animal Services to promote the Pets’ Trust initiative. He has led the Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations for 14 years.
He plans to travel widely this year, with more than 200 nights away from home. Broadway remains his passion, and he hopes the contest will give him a platform to draw younger theatergoers.
