Nine Dickens works crammed into a single evening

Adam Long spent years presenting the complete works of Shakespeare in one pacy show.

Now the American performer has turned his attention to another British literary great, Charles Dickens.

Dickens Unplugged romps through nine of the author's works with a modicum of detail before wrapping up his complete oeuvre in song for the finale.

Long, 47, insists the show is sincere, if brief. "The appreciation we have for Dickens shines through," he said.

It was his producer who suggested he look at Dickens after award-winning shows by the Reduced Shakespeare Company, which Long founded, closed after a nine-year run in the West End.

After a try-out at last year's Edinburgh Festival and workshops in Guild-ford, Dickens Unplugged opens in the West End next month. A cast of five brings to life characters including Oliver Twist, Tiny Tim, David Copperfield and Miss Havisham — with some of the author's own biography from time spent working in a blacking factory in youth through to his death in 1870, aged 58.

Long said: "The conceit is that we're a Charles Dickens tribute band." He had to do a crash course of reading to write the show, knowing only a handful of Dickens's works when he started. "You realise you know more Dickens than you think you do. I had forgotten that A Christmas Carol was his," he said.

The result is 20 original songs in which The Old Curiosity Shop is wrapped up in under 30 seconds, while David Copperfield gets nearly 20 minutes.

Dickens Unplugged will be at the Comedy Theatre from 23 May