Former Coronation Street star Kevin Kennedy on sobriety and bringing the ‘bonkers’ Rock of Ages show to Cambridge Arts Theatre

After 24 years of clean living and sobriety, former Coronation Street star Kevin Kennedy reckons he is happy to play a wild man of rock.

Kevin, who is still best known for playing Curly Watts in the soap, has never looked back after packing in the boozing that saw him drinking a bottle of vodka a day back in the 1990s.

But since turning his life around following a stint in The Priory rehab centre in 1998 he says his life has been full of “wonderful things”, including the fact his two daughters have never seen him drink.

And he’s enjoying being able to act out on stage “all the excesses” of his nightclub owner character in the musical Rock of Ages “without any of the consequences”.

Kevin says of the part: “I play Dennis Dupree, who owns the club and he’s a very lovable reprobate. He is the master of excess, whether that be sex or drugs or booze. He’s quite charming, and he has a vested interest in bringing new artists through. But sometimes these excesses get in the way of that a little bit. He’s very, very promiscuous with members of both sexes. Well, you can’t say that anymore, can you? Put it this way, whatever presents itself to Dennis he sees as a challenge, sexually or alcohol or drug-wise.”

Rock of Ages is a musical comedy featuring classic rock anthems that is coming to Cambridge Arts Theatre from October 4-8. Songs include ‘We Built This City’, ‘The Final Countdown’, ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’, ‘Here I Go Again’, ‘Can’t Fight This Feeling’ and ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’, played by a live band.

“It’s a completely bonkers show,” says Kevin. “It’s a cross between Spinal Tap, We Will Rock You and Rocky Horror - it’s just pure fun from beginning to end. It’s the perfect antidote to post pandemic. It’s not very deep or moralistic. It’s just a lot of fun. From beginning to end, it is a love story. Three love stories, actually, set in Los Angeles in the 80s about a rock club. It’s loosely based on The Viper Room. And it’s about how big businesses want to take over the rock club and put up a mall which, spookily, is exactly what happened to The Viper Room.”

Of playing Dennis, he says: “It’s a lot of fun because you can manage to do all the excesses that you want to do on the stage without the consequences, which is, which is probably ideal, you know? It’s very freeing and I enjoy it. The audience enjoys it as well, which is more important. It isn’t a deeply moralistic tale, it’s just a hoot from beginning to end.”

Dennis is always seen swigging from a bottle of beer on stage. Was that difficult to act?

“Oh no, I’ve been sober for 24 years now,” says Kevin.

“Now I don't even think about it, to be fair. No, I'm having so much fun with what I’m doing. It’s just a prop. So it’s not a problem.”

And since giving up drinking, so many good things have come into his life, he explains. “I'm alive, which is always a bonus,” he laughs.

“And I’m just embracing everything that I’ve always wanted to do. It’s been a long time but they did tell me when I first got sober that you don’t have to drink, don’t have to take drugs and you can still do what you want within reason. And I embraced that totally. I chased that all over, which led to some wonderful things, professionally and personally. I have two lovely daughters, who have never seen me pick up a drink. So that’s probably the biggest bonus, that we’ve managed to raise our two beautiful girls.”

Since being in recovery, Kevin has set up an addiction help centre with his wife Claire, called Kennedy Street.

He says: “We wanted to signpost people into recovery. Because it was quite difficult when I first got sober. People were ashamed and didn’t want to admit to it. They wanted to keep their recovery as secret as their addiction.

“We decided that we needed to change that by making recovery more visible. There are many CEOs and very successful people out there who are in active recovery and we thought it was time to champion them, rather than concentrate on the disease, which gets all the press and the recovery doesn’t. So that’s what we decided to do and with some help from the National Lottery we set up a 24-hour helpline just before the first lockdown, which went crazily busy after that. And now we have an actual physical hub in the centre of Brighton, whereas before it was just in the ethos and idea and it was a phone line.

“Now we actually have a place which we’re in the process of getting ready to open, which is very exciting, where people come to get some advice to sit down and talk about their problem with people who are not going to judge them. So that’s that’s what we’re up to at the moment.

“We found that during the lockdowns people were very scared and were self-medicating, whether that be with booze, drugs or ordering things from Amazon. Addiction really came into into fruition and so did gambling. And I think that is understandable. I think we’ve yet to reap what happened there during the lockdowns. So yeah, it went absolutely crazy for a while and we did our best under the circumstances.”

Although Kevin is probably best known for his portrayal of Curly Watts in Coronation Street, he has become a star of stage musicals over the past two decades.

His West End theatre credits include Amos in Chicago at the Adelphi Theatre and We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre. Kevin has played both Caractacus Potts and The Child Catcher in the hit musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, becoming the first actor to have played both roles. He appeared as Dennis Dupree in the 2018 UK Tour of Rock of Ages and has also appeared in the national tours of the musicals The Rocky Horror Show, The Commitments and Kay Mellor’s Fat Friends.

Music has always been an important part of his life and he has enjoyed playing in bands, including with Johnny Marr, although he says: “When I saw Johnny play the guitar when we were at the age of 14, I realised that if he was that good, maybe I should be doing something else. We still talk occasionally and we still have our shared love of Manchester City. So that’s probably the the main topic of conversation when we bump into each other now and again.”

This is not the first time Kevin has performed in Rock of Ages. In fact he’s returned to the role of Dennis which he first played pandemic in 2018. Has he noticed any differences since his return?

“The audiences are wilder!” he says.

“I think it’s because they realised the value of live theatre. It’s a shared experience, which you don’t get anywhere else unless you go to a live football match or a gig. It’s something that we’ve missed because we’ve all been isolated and socially distanced. And people are really embracing it and it’s just coming back stronger, I think, because we suddenly realise what a wonderful national asset this is, and we are the best in the world at it and have been for centuries. That’s not an exaggeration. So people are embracing what we do and they can see it in their droves and have a really good time.”

As for what the future holds, Kevin seems entirely relaxed.

“Life’s a challenge, you know, so I quite enjoy whatever comes my way,” he says.

“I’ve done so many different aspects of this business, whether it be film, theatre, that I just take everything as it comes along, which is probably the best way to be. I don’t have any burning ambitions, I just hope for the best and put one foot in front of the other.”

Rock of Ages is at Cambridge Arts from Tuesday, October 4, to Saturday, October 8. Tickets, priced £25-£55, are available from cambridgeartstheatre.com/whats-on/rock-ages.