Michael Cohl resurfaces

YOUR WEEKEND READING ASSIGNMENT: The N.Y. Times Arts section looks more like Rolling Stone heading into the weekend, with Janet Maslin (Jon Landau’s ex, it should be noted) reviewing Sean Wilentz’s Bob Dylan in America; Dave Itzkoff’s account of a meeting between Levi Kreis, who plays Jerry Lee Lewis in the Broadway musical Million Dollar Quartet, and the Killer himself; and a profile that could’ve been headlined “Whatever Happened to Michael Cohl?” The veteran concert promoter was last seen, you may recall, getting drummed out of Live Nation’s stillborn artists division in a revamp undertaken by Cohl’s longtime friend and business associate Michael Rapino.  Here’s the gist of Patrick Healy’s piece, which is actually titled “A Rock Impresario Gambles on Spider-Man”: “A high-school dropout who became a powerful rock-music promoter for U2 and the Rolling Stones, all but inventing the modern concert tour, Cohl is the potential savior of the $60 million show, which begins performances on Nov. 14. He was recruited a year ago by Bono and the Edge—the first-time theatrical composers for Spider-Man—to try to salvage the show from a premature death when money ran out.” Read the whole thing here. (9/10a)