Eddie Izzard to headline NYC staging of 'Great Expectations'

Oct. 27 (UPI) -- British entertainer Eddie Izzard is set to return to the New York stage this December, playing 21 characters in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations.

The show will play a limited engagement of six weeks at The Greenwich House Theater in Manhattan from Dec. 9 through Jan. 22.

Mark Izzard adapted Dickens' 1861 novel about love and wealth disparity for the theater.

The play is being directed by Selina Cadell.

"Charles Dickens loved performing his own works in America, and so I thought it would be a wonderful idea to launch Great Expectations here," Izzard said in a statement Wednesday.

"I always feel at home in New York, and I believe if Charles Dickens were alive today, he would feel at home, too."

Eddie Izzard is a stand-up comedian and human rights activist, who has also acted in the TV shows The Riches, United States of Tara, Hannibal and The Lost Symbol, as well as in the films Velvet Goldmine, Ocean's Twelve, Ocean's Thirteen, Cat's Meow, Valkyrie and Six Minutes to Midnight. Broadway credits include A Day in the Death of Joe Egg and Race.