Nigel Havers, Denis Lawson and Stephen Tompkinson are all star cast as West End hit comes to Edinburgh

TV favourites Nigel Havers, Denis Lawson and Stephen Tompkinson appear at The King’s all this week in Yasmina Reza’s award-winning comedy Art.

Stephen Tompkinson, Nigel Havers, Denis Lawson in Art

The stars of Coronation Street, New Tricks and Drop The Dead Donkey play sparring art lovers and friends Serge, Marc and Ivan.

After breaking box office records in 2018, David Pugh & Dafydd Rogers produce the current tour of the Old Vic production.

Pugh says, “It is 20 years since Dafydd and I first produced the comedy masterpiece ART in the West End, and the original post-London tour played for 78 weeks.

“This time, we want to break our own record; in fact, we want to play as many theatres as Sir Ken Dodd played in his wonderful career, and with this marvellous cast, we think we have every chance.”

The cast certainly have the credits to back them up.

Nigel Havers, who was recently killed off as Lewis Archer in Coronation Street, boasts roles in the films Chariots of Fire, A Passage to India, Empire of the Sun and The Whistle Blower.

His TV series include The Charmer, Dangerfield, Manchild, and, more recently, the hit US series Brothers and Sisters, Benidorm and Lord Hepworth in Downton Abbey.

Denis Lawson, meanwhile, is known for his roles as John Jarndyce in the BBC’s Bleak House, for which he was nominated for both a BAFTA and an EMMY award, and as DI Steve McAndrew in New Tricks.

On the big screen he played Gordon Urquhart in Local Hero and Wedge Antilles in the original Star Wars trilogy.

Stephen Tompkinson is best known for DCI Banks, Trollied, Wild at Heart and three series of Ballykissangel.

Art, originally a French-language play, premiered in 1994 at Comédie des Champs-Élysées in Paris.

Art, King’s Theatre, Leven Street, until Saturday 16 February, 7.30pm (Matinees 2.30pm), £10-£35, 0131-529 6000