Michael Cohl: ‘Some Great Ideas & Some Not So Good Ones’

Within days of an unpleasant experience with the late Bill Graham, Cohl was on the phone with The Rolling Stones’ manager Prince Rupert Loewenstein and would promote the band for years to come. And he turned around a near-disaster on Broadway when he decided to pick up a call from Bono, who was about to see “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark” crash and burn before even opening.

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What they all had in common was a need for an executable strategy, and Cohl was the guy who came up with one in each case, and all contributed greatly to the Canadian’s legacy and legend. Cohl spent about an hour and a half spinning stories and surely could have gone on much longer, regaling a standing-room-only crowd in the Broadway EF ballroom space with tales of facing down Don King and firing Donald Trump, among others.

Along with having an executable strategy, Cohl advises artists to always know who your promoter is. The Jackson tour is a case in point. Not only was the “promoter” an NFL owner who was clueless about concert promotion, he’d brought in some questionable assistance from King and the Rev. Al Sharpton. Cohl ended up running Sullivan’s Jacksons tour and, before it was over, had 40 security men “with tire irons and hockey sticks” facing off with three of King’s bodyguards when he felt threatened by the infamous boxing promoter.

He took a chance in 1987 on a Roger Waters-less Pink Floyd after the mercurial bassist announced he’d signed with Premier Talent and the agency let it be known that anyone promoting the band could expect to never again promote a Premier client. Cohl defied the powerful agency, told the band to always “go bold, play stadiums” and put a Toronto stadium show on sale. It sold out within an hour. Without telling the band, he put a second show on sale, which sold out in 90 minutes. A third, also without the band’s consent, sold 35,000 of 55,000 tickets in a week. The band wanted to know why it was taking so long, Cohl said.

Then came The Rolling Stones and the Steel Wheels tour. Cohl and his staff worked with Graham on the Canadian stop of Amnesty International’s 1988 Human Rights Now tour amid complaints of the San Francisco promoter’s behavior. But instead of being confronted by his union crew with a threat to quit, as Cohl expected, they said “if we don’t work with Bill Graham, we’ll never get a Rolling Stones show.” The Stones hadn’t toured in years and, at the time, were barely on speaking terms, according to Cohl.

But since he would be speaking with Loewenstein in just a few days about another artist, Cohl decided to dangle an offer the Stones wouldn’t refuse: $40 million for 40 shows. The Stones toured for Cohl well into the 2000s.

But of all the turnaround projects and making the seemingly impossible very profitable, Cohl is proudest of his achievement in saving Spider-Man. “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark,” with music and lyrics by U2’s Bono and The Edge, and directed by Julie Taymor of “Lion King” fame, was beset by disaster nearly from the start. After costing some $30 million, it was on the verge of being shut down before its official opening. Accidents and injuries during rehearsals and previews had provided the New York City media, as well as The Onion and “Saturday Night Live,” fodder for jokes and critics had been merciless.

Cohl realized Taymor was unable to write an ending for the production and eventually fired her and wrote one himself. Not only was the musical retooled, so was the theatre’s seating configuration – eliminating some 200 seats underneath balconies that blocked sightlines of aerial choreography. New investors were found, costs were cut, and “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark” was relaunched for $12 million. By the time it closed, it held the all-time box office record for single-week ticket sales, and earned more than $200 million. Breaking the weekly sales record helped change the headlines around “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark,” Cohl said.

Taking a stand and executing a strategy to achieve goals are necessary for success, Cohl emphasized, before a slide of a poster for “The Marvel Experience: S.H.I.E.L.D.” touring family show was shown. In concluding, he called out facility managers for not booking his show “because they had a concert 45 days ago” and asked that they “just say no to the Disney and Feld exceptions.”