Welcome back to Closing Night! Throughout this season and in between the main episodes, I’ll take you further behind the scenes by giving you bonus episodes like this of the interviews I’ve had with artists, creatives, and industry experts.

In the previous episode you learned about the contentious history of the Marquis Theatre, and heard from those who protested its construction and led efforts to stop five theater buildings from being demolished. One of those people was Joe Rosenberg, co-founder of Save the Theaters and someone who has been instrumental in landmarking historic Broadway venues throughout the New York City theater district. Along with his preservation work, he own and operates V.I.P. Tours of New York, through which he offers custom behind-the-scenes theatre/architecture tours in New York and other cities.

Joe was certainly a wealth of knowledge as I did research for that first episode about events that happened more than 40 years ago. And in this full interview, Joe shares his own background and interests that led him to Save the Theaters as well as the hard-fought battles and protests that surrounded the Portman hotel and theater complex.

Closing Night is a production of WINMI Media with Patrick Oliver Jones as host and executive producer. Dan Delgado is the editor and co-producer, not only for this podcast but also for his own movie podcast called The Industry. Blake Stadnik composed the theme music, and Maria Clara Ribeiro is co-producer.