Ryan Carter stars in musical Bat Out of Hell.Chris Davis/Supplied
Asked about Doug Ford’s plan to outlaw ticket scalping, legendary concert promoter Michael Cohl had two words for the Ontario Premier: “Good luck.”
Cohl recalls presenting a pair of shows by Bob Dylan and the Band at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens in 1974. There were at least 200,000 requests for approximately 35,000 tickets. Ten minutes before the sold-out first concert, four tickets were still at the box office − the people who bought them failed to pick them up. Cohl decided to give them away for free.
“I went outside and held up them up and said, ‘Does anyone want tickets?’ One of the scalpers ran over and knocked me flat on my butt. That was their territory, and they were protecting it.”
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It’s a metaphor for how difficult it will be to stop the reselling of tickets at prices higher than face value to concerts, sports games and other live events. “One way or another, the resellers will find a way to do it,” Cohl says.
The Toronto native is still promoting, whether tours by Genesis and David Gilmour or stage productions such as Bat Out of Hell, the Jim Steinman musical featuring songs made famous by Meat Loaf, which made its North American premiere in 2017 at Toronto’s Canon Theatre.
It’s now called the Ed Mirvish Theatre, which is where the current version of Bat Out of Hell will spread its wings from April 1 to 4, before hitting Montreal (April 5), then heading back to Ontario for performances in London (April 7) and Thunder Bay (April 12).
The Manhattan-based Cohl spoke to The Globe and Mail during intermission of the final dress rehearsal at the Landmark Theatre in Syracuse, N.Y.
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The original Bat Out of Hell was in Toronto for nearly three months. Why are you presenting it in shorter runs now?
It’s one-nighters now, though Toronto messed that up by selling so fast. We ended up with five shows over four days. We decided to do one-nighters because there are so many markets where we can’t do multiple nights. We can’t do a week of Bat Out of Hell in Hartford. So, it’s a new rendition, geared to one-nighters. We did it this winter in New Zealand and Australia and it did great.
We’re seeing a trend of pop artists playing concert residencies and hitting fewer markets. Why are you doing the opposite?
The theatre business and the concert business are night and day. By the time concert artists are doing the residencies, they’re generally well into their career, highly successful and incredibly wealthy. They have the ability to call their shots.
Bruce Springsteen said his favourite thing about doing his Broadway residency was that he could walk home after the shows.
That’s right. This is a totally different game though. There are no stars in Bat Out of Hell. The songs are the stars. It doesn’t play arenas or stadiums or command a $500 ticket price. The mountain has to come to Muhammad.
You worked with Meat Loaf, who had a reputation for being high maintenance, a hypochondriac. Can we say this musical is a more reliable presentation of Meat Loaf music than the real thing was?
[Laughs] I’m not going to get into that. Meat Loaf was great live. But, yes, we’ve got a great cast and a group of great dancers who definitely show up every night.
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Tell me about the late Jim Steinman, who wrote the songs, most of which are on Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell album trilogy.
He was a rocker who studied Wagner at Amherst College. His idea for Bat Out of Hell was a rock opera from the word go, before the albums. Jim was an extraordinary, extravagant character.
This was his baby, right? His opus?
He was intimately involved. As we approached the opening in 2017 in Manchester, England, he was not well. We installed equipment and transmitted the show to his house every night. We got notes from him, from the rehearsals right up to the eight weeks we ran.
You’ve said you’re drawn to storytelling. Have you seen the quasi-theatrical concerts by pop stars such as Lady Gaga and Sabrina Carpenter?
I saw that trend coming years ago. Where it’s gone now is incredible. But quasi-theatrical is a good way to put it. They’re phenomenal productions but they’re not theatre.
Do you prefer musical theatre to concert promotion?
I love storytelling and I love music, and I love where they meet. With concerts, I don’t write songs. I don’t get involved. My job is to sell tickets. With theatre, we start with a blank sheet. It’s harder.
And riskier?
With Genesis or David Gilmour or Barbra Streisand, the tickets sell on the first day. In theatre, you’re hoping people like it. Yes, it’s infinitely riskier. In fact, I’d call my relationship with theatre a habit I’m addicted to. I’m just too old to quit it.
This interview has been edited and condensed.