It's all about a love affair with a cheetah named Maya, says Broadway star Brad Little.

That's what brings him to Cincinnati for the third straight year to star in Angels of Music, a benefit for the Angel Fund, the cheetah conservation program Cathryn Hilker runs from the Cincinnati Zoo.

"Something magical happened to me in December of '97 that changed my life completely," Little says. "I was in Cincinnati doing Phantom and met Maya. She was down in the dumps, ailing, but she took to me and her mood changed. She perked up, and we became fast friends."

Which is why he's back in town Nov. 11 for Angels III with Erich Kunzel; Little's wife, Barbara McCulloh; Kevin Anderson; Ron Bohmer; and Judy McLane. It's at Music Hall, $125; call 487-3328 by Monday.

In the meantime, let's sit Little down and play a game of five questions.

What I look forward to most when I return to Cincinnati . . .

Oh, man, there are so many things. I'd have to say the friends I met when I was there as the Phantom. Especially at the zoo and my cheetahs. Oh, I like the chili, too.

I keep doing Angels because . . .

For five weeks in '97, I went to visit Maya every day. I fell in love, but I also learned about cheetahs in the wild and the threat to their survival. Since then, I'll do anything I can.

People are always surprised to find out I'm . . .

An animal lover but certainly not obsessed, definitely not a fanatic. I do this because I have to.

My dream role . . .

Hasn't been written yet. But I will forever have a smile on my face when I play the Phantom. It's great to watch, but playing it . . . I could do it every night.

If I weren't an actor, I'd be . . .

I'd call Cathryn (Hilker) to see how I could help. Move to Cincinnati or Africa - I'd have to drag my wife out of New York - and get more involved. This has added a new color to my life.
 
 

Editorial comments - Please note that Ms. Hamilton incorrectly attributes "What Kind of Fool Am I" to Mr. Ross. Being that this is not exactly a humorous song her comments may very well be the right performer but the wrong song.
 

Cincinnati orchestras have been on a International kick lately. Last month, a Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra series at Riverbend featured a night of Russian music, another featured the music of Italy.
The Cincinnati Pops orchestra continued the theme Saturday evening, for their "Pops Goes British" concert.  Guest conductor Jack Everly led the orchestra and five guest vocalist in a wide range of music, from musical theater to rock 'n' roll.  The only prerequisite: all composers must be British.
Pops Goes British is a production of the Symphonic Pops Consortium.  A traveling show, the cast and conductor have little to do with Cincinnati.  This worked for them because the vocalist are all top-notch, international performers, possibly hand picked by Mr. Everly.
Sometimes, however, it did not.  Parts of the show appeared over-rehearsed, like the performers could sing the songs in their sleep and probably have.
The night opened with Mr. Everly's "Overture," an arrangement of songs such as Monty Norman's "The James Bond Theme" and Jean-Joseph Mouret's "Le Rondeau," better known as the theme to the series Masterpiece Theatre.
Then it was on to works by musical theater greats like like Lionel Bart ("Consider Yourself") and, of course, Andrew Lloyd Webber as sung by the five guest vocalist - mezzo-soprano Judy McLane, baritone Brad Little, pianist/vocalist Steve Ross, alto Gwendolyn Jones and soprano Jenifer Shrader.
All five were on stage for "Consider Yourself," and although the arrangement did a nice job at showing the diversity among the singers' ranges, the sound was unbalanced.  The orchestra was barely audible.
Mr. Ross was hoarse but he still delivered a powerful version of Anthony Newley's "What Kind of Fool Am I?" capturing the dry, witty, humor of the English.
Another standout was Ms. McLane's rendition of Mr. Webber's "Buenos Aries/Don't Cry for Me Argentina." Her strong but subtle phrasing was effective.
Mr. Little was in Cincinnati a few years ago in a road tour of The Phantom of the Opera when he played the Phantom. The night wouldn't have been complete without him singing Mr. Webber's "The Music of the Night."
Mr. Little's version of the classic was powerful and he moved from a whisper to a roar effortlessly. He got inside the lyrics and drew them out, and ended the song with the classic, show-stopping, hold-the-note-for-as-long-as-you-can finale.
The audience gave him a standing ovation, and remained standing until Mr. Everly asked everyone to sit down for the real grand-finale - Mr Webber's "Memory."
Again, the five singers combined forces on stage for the last number and again, the sound was unbalanced But the audience gave them a standing ovation, like a group of Aussies saying, "No Worries" Or perhaps that's another concert.

"Just want to let everyone know what a wonderful thing Debby did in NY. I am so proud to have her as a friend and to know she has a heart to take care of our heroes. She plans to go back. I have asked her to share some of her stories of her trip to Ground Zero."  Brad Little
 
 

The first weekend in December I had the opportunity to join a group of co-workers and volunteer in NYC for the Salvation Army. We were assigned to the Office of the Medical Examiner (OME) and Ground Zero. We worked serving food, cooking food, stocking supplies, taking supplies to respite tents near the work sites, keeping tourist out, taking hot coffee and snacks around the perimeter of work site (at Ground Zero) to those who were working and talking to the workers. It was an incredible experience. We are going back the first weekend in January. Our group worked mostly at night 3 pm to 3 am or later. Our lodging was none other than the YMCA - yep, the one that inspired the song. Complete with bunk beds and bathrooms down the hall. We either walked or took the subway everywhere we went. We were quite the site boarding the subway at 3:00 am to return to the Y, in somewhat dirty clothing, work boots and hard hats (required when on site at Ground Zero). The above photo was taken at the main tent at Ground Zero. This is where the workers come to rest, eat and warm up. It started out as a group photo for our company's employee magazine but was expanded to include members of the NYPD, FDNY, PAPD and construction workers. All who were working at the recovery site. (I am the one up front in the Phantom sweatshirt).
Our first day we worked in the morning at the OME and then went over to Ground Zero for the 3 pm -11 pm shift. While at the OME a funeral director came to retrieve the body of a firefighter. We stood at attention along with recovery workers police and firefighters as they  escorted the body draped with an American flag. It was a solemn reminder of why we were there. The OME was quite busy that weekend as they were finding bodies at the recovery site. When found, the bodies are brought to the OME (a makeshift morgue set up in rows of tents on a side street near Bellview) to be identified and held until the funeral home picks them up for burial. That afternoon was my first experience of seeing Ground Zero beyond the barriers. Nothing you see on TV can begin show the magnitude of the destruction. The site is very surreal. It's a war zone, a work zone a memorial site and a burial site. When we were there smoke was still rising from the fires and the remainder of the northeast wall of Tower One was still standing. The wall looked oddly like the walls of a cathedral. In the debris field was a piece of fallen structure that was in the shape of a cross. One of the other "crosses" they had found had been moved near the perimeter of the site and stood next to a decorated Christmas tree. The site is massive. When traveling the perimeter, we rode around in gators. On one of our rounds I noticed a sign with an American flag attached to a construction trailer. It was much like the sign post from MASH - with different cities and their distance from that particular point. The top sign was Kabul - some 6,000 odd miles away. I would imagine other signs represented home to some of the workers but it was the bottom sign that made me take note "Hell 0 Miles". Just outside the barriers was a restaurant in a building that is no longer safe to occupy. There were withering plants in the window and tables still set for the next diner. Left as it was on September 11th. We visited the many memorials that have been built in Battery Park. There were hundreds and hundreds of teddy bears, candles, flowers, photos and letters to lost loved ones. Inside the respite centers are letters, and photos from school children from all over the country. The workers love reading the letters and looking at the drawings while they are eating their meals. The Salvation Army is doing a wonderful job of serving hot, well balanced meals 24 hours a day to the workers. We got the opportunity to talk to a lot of the people working there. They all had interesting stories to tell and many of them were there for personal reasons.  One man I spoke to (he was a steel worker) had brothers who had built the towers. One of the chillier evenings we loaded up a gator with hot water and coffee, snacks and cheesecakes and drove the perimeter taking goodies to those guarding the barriers and working the site. We made a lot of friends that night. It entire weekend was an experience I will never forget and I look forward to going back again.  The work there continues and probably will for quite awhile. The people working there in the recovery are all heroes and it was an honor to be there helping to provide some basic comforts.

---

USA Today

Cincinnati - Cathryn Hilker never ceases to be amazed by cheetahs. Just the other day she watched as a baby one ran across the field near her home just north of here, "Is this insane or what?" she ask no one in particular.
Well, yes, it is.
What is insane is the fact the baby cheetah was being chased by an Anatolian shepherd puppy named Alexa.  Then the cheetah, named Sahara, chased the dog. And then they rolled over and played with each other in the tall grass, something that normally would not happen in nature.
And it will not again.
In December, Hilker brought the puppy and the young cheetah, natural enemies, to her house to socialize them.
There is a method to her madness.
Hilker has spent much of her life working to save cheetahs from extinction. The founder and head of the Cat Ambassador Program at the Cincinnati Zoo, Hilker now is educating people on how guard dogs on African farms can drive the cheetah away from livestock, keeping both the livestock and the cheetah alive.
Although a predator, the cheetah is extremely timid and is driven off by a barking dog, an easy solution to the problem for the endangered species.
"And this is the only way we can tell the story here, " says Hilker, explaining the cheetah/dog socialization program underway at her house this winter.  "So we've had to let them bond over the last few months".
Soon she will be telling their story everywhere, from local schools and service clubs to morning shows on national TV.  The cheetah and dog eventually will go to live at the Cincinnati Zoo.
"Our whole purpose in doing this is to teach, " Hilker says.  "That's it. Any other reason for doing this would be wrong.  We're just widening our net of education."
With a grant to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden's Angel Fund from Hilker and her husband, Carl, an 18,000-acre farm was purchased in Namibia a few years ago with the stipulation that the land be used to establish a permanent base for Laurie Marker's Cheetah Conservation Fund.
"We're doing this to ensure the cheetah has a future in the world," says Hilker, who estimates  the cheetah population worldwide is now down to about 12,500 from 100,000 a decade ago.  Twenty percent of cheetahs worldwide roam Namibia.
Much of the cheetah's problem has to do with a longtime local practice - farmers killing predators first  (the cheetahs) and asking questions later.
"So Laurie is working directly with the farmers and the tribes, talking to them about the guard dogs," Hilker says.  "It's important the people of Namibia save their cats."
About 120 guard dogs now work on farms in Namibia, two of them on the Cheetah Conservation Farm run by Marker.
Hilker thinks she sees a turnaround in the making.  "It's an uphill battle, but Laurie is making progress.  Since she has been there, the cheetah population has stabilized.  Before, it was on a steady decline."
When Hilker first brought the two animals together, neither really knew what to think. At first the baby cheetah wanted to run and chase; the dog wanted to roll and tumble, she says.
"But what they teach each other is gentleness," she says.  They've reached an understanding now."
And have settled into a rather nice routine. Between their numerous romps through the fields, Sahara, nicknamed "Sarah," sleeps in the sun on the Hilker's dining room table, while Alexa sleeps on the floor below.
"It's worse than raising a child, " Hilker says.  "Here you're donating a part of your life to the raising of a wild animal.  You become accepted into his family."
But as Chad Yelton of the Cincinnati Zoo says, "In the end an animal that's known for fighting with cats may be the animal that helps save it from extinction."
For more information, check out the Cheetah Conservation Fund at www.cheetah.org.
 
 
 
 

Although the extension is sold out, tickets are still available for certain Dec 20 and 22 performances.

Billed as an "early Valentine," the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park production features "the triumphs and trials of love, marriage and family" that have become familiar to New York audiences during the show's four year run Off-Broadway. A cast of two men and two women portray "more than 50 different characters" in I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, which features "every possible vignette in the spectrum of male/female romantic relationships."

The cast includes Heather Ayers ( Forbidden Broadway Strikes Back), Brad Little (The Phantom of the Opera), Ginette Rhodes (both female roles in New York's I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, ) and Jamison Stern, (the Playhouse's The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (abridged), and in New York's Genesius Guild production of Love! Valour! Compassion!).

Cincinnati native Dennis Courtney returns to direct and choreograph I Love You and the rest of the creative team comprises set designer Felix E. Cochren, costume designer David Kay Mickelsen, lighting designer Betsy Adams, musical director Louis F. Goldberg and stage manager Emily F. McMullen.

Tickets range from $35 - $43, depending on day and seat location. For tickets or information call the box office at (513) 421-3888 or toll-free in Ohio, Ky. and Ind. at (800) 582-3208. Call (513) 345-2248 for TDD accessibility. Tickets also can be purchased on the Playhouse web site at www.cincyplay.com.

— By Murdoch McBride
 
 

Everyone fusses that the holidays start earlier every year. It's not yet Thanksgiving and the Playhouse has a perfect show for Valentine's Day. In fact, if you're thinking that the musical I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change might have a glimmer of holiday merriment, you'll be disappointed. There's nary a Christmas carol sung, a wreath hung nor a bell rung.

And it doesn't matter.

I Love You will be a big hit for the Playhouse during the November and December holidays simply because it's about love and marriage, a perfect outing for a first date, for newlyweds, for weary parents, and for seniors together for years. The show pleasantly and humorously - and occasionally poignantly - explores the relationships while highlighting the differences between women and men.

Felix E. Cochren's set is framed with oversized tongue-in-cheek Victorian greeting card images - roses, sweethearts and turtledoves, not to mention a few sculpted cupids - although behind the two musicians who sit on a balcony over the stage (pianist Louis F. Goldberg and violinist Dorothy Han, who show us a bit of their own funny relationship at the beginning of Act 2), we see a hint of the contemporary, urban steel and glass.

The set plays an important part in the quick pace of this show (it's two acts in two hours and 10 minutes, but feels faster), thanks to a small revolving track that lets actors, props and set pieces wheel onstage and off with minimum downtime. Under Dennis Courtney's fleet direction, the actors come and go through an amazing array of costume and wig changes, too.

The cast of four - Heather Ayers, Brad Little, Ginette Rhodes and Jamison Stern - mix and match seamlessly, playing characters from nerds and geeks to studs and babes (in fact, Ayers and Stern do that in one number). The ensemble portray twentysomethings stumbling toward love and lonely seniors doing the same. The approach is usually comic, both monologues and comic sketches, such as all four tooling around in a car - an angry dad, a second-guessing mom, and antsy k.ids in the back seat - using four rolling desk chairs as their "vehicle."

Little is especially powerful, a Broadway talent almost - but not quite - too large for the tiny Shelterhouse stage. He appeared in The Phantom of the Opera in New York and played the lead role on tour, including a stop at the Aronoff Center in 1997. But each of the four actors has his or her moments to shine.

After a brief prologue in which the ensemble gets dressed for a date - and tries to suppress anxieties - Little and Rhodes open the show with a fast-forward relationship. Next Ayers and Stern are a young pair, four dates into a relationship and still feeling their way along. Stern and Little play outrageous boors in a restaurant while Ayers and Rhodes bemoan the "Single Man Drought." Little and Rhodes pair up for a hilarious number, "Tear Jerk," about a supposedly macho guy going to a chick flick.

The show is not without its weaker moments. An angst-ridden dinner with parents is too caricatured and drawn out, and an infomercial about legal recourse for bad dates was simply crass. A screaming "Scared Straight" parody that frightens an unlikely pair into a relationship was lacking in humor. (For those with gentler sensibilities, it should be pointed out that the show's language, here and elsewhere, can be oh-so-contemporary and colloquial.)

The second act moves from dating to love after marriage. After an act opener in which Rhodes reviews all her bad bridesmaid dresses, we meet Little and Ayers as sappy new parents whose friend (Stern) looks at them like they're aliens. Rhodes, Stern and Ayers give different perspectives on "Waiting" (for a husband watching ESPN, for a shopping wife, in line for a ladies room). There are serious moments, too, watching Ayers as a divorcèe who records a candid and revealing dating video. Stern asks "Shouldn't I Be Less In Love With You?" while his wife (Rhodes) is lost in the morning newspaper. And Little and Rhodes play widowed strangers - "You have the look of someone who spent their life with someone" - whose paths cross awkwardly and then lovingly at a funeral home, "I Can Live With That."

I suspect audiences will see this show - and probably want to come back again. They'll love it. It's perfect.

I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE continues at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's Robert S. Marx Theatre through Dec. 23.
 

Theater review: 'I Love You'
 
 

        I don't know about you, but national politics have provided me with all the drama I can take this week. A night of near-mindless entertainment feels just right, especially when it comes with an eye-poppingly good cast.

        I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change is getting its regional premiere in a holiday run at Playhouse in the Park. The first act is like a singing Seinfeld, the second act is a musical Everybody Loves Raymond, the latter half in particular is worth leaving the Barco lounger for.

        But maybe I think that because I always thought the Seinfeld sidekicks were tiresomely neurotic and unpleasant, but I'm all alone on that one. Everybody else is going to love I Love You's first act, which goes, in comedy sketch and song, from first date to a walk down the aisle.

        The women are desperate, the men are bottom of the barrel, the cast is delicious as they quick-change their way through a rogue's gallery of losers.

        In the warm and fuzzy second act, the foursome enact the stages of adulthood: marriage, parenthood, waiting (for oh so many things), empty nesting, surviving.

        Ginetta Rhodes is the perky short-haired blonde with the big voice who can play little old ladies and little girls and busy career women, an exhausted wife/mom who'd like to remember what sex is. She also makes a show-stopping bridesmaid.

        Heather Ayers is the long haired blonde with the big voice, a babe who can play a non-babe, a googie-talking new mommy, and a neighborhood of suburban wives.

        Brad Little, total Leading Man material, infuses all his roles with brio, whether he's a real man at a sissy-girl movie, a car-loving guy on a family trip or a charmer of an elderly gentleman attempting a pick-up at a funeral parlor.

        They're all welcome new talent on the Playhouse stage. Jamison Stern, a veteran of The Compleat Works of Wllm Shakspr shows his comic range as a non-stud, a harried husband, a bored teenager, and does nicely by a reflective (if manipulative) soliloquy set in late middle age.

        Joe DiPietro wrote the book and lyrics. The skits could slide into a sitcom episode with barely a change of verb tense. The songs, with Jimmy Roberts' music set to Mr. DiPietro's lyrics are agreeable if ot memorable. Of course, they're supposed to be agreeable not memorable. That's why it's near-mindless entertainment.

        When the material leaves something to be desired, they soar above it and carry it along. The Playhouse has found a talented director in Dennis Courtney, who has a nice sense of comedy, an impeccable sense of musical and makes it all seem bright as a new penny.

        Felix Cochren's set is a bare cabaret stage, tiny combo playing above, trimmed with cupids and Victorian posies and rosies and cleverly chosen depictions of romance through history.

        Just as clever are David Kay Mickelsen's costumes, which identify the character of their wearers as accurately as fingerprints. The his-and-her shirts on the suburban marrieds are priceless.

        I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, through Dec. 23, Playhouse in the Park Shelterhouse, 421-3888.
 

Romantic relationships between women and men from the nerves of a first date to courting in old age make for witty and entertaining theater in "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change."

The revue, which opened Thursday night at the Cincinnati Playhouse Thompson Shelterhouse Theatre, occasionally hits some rather worn targets.. These include how romance has to step aside for some hard compromises matrimony demands in "Wedding Vows" and the young woman nervously waiting a follow up call after a first date in "He Called Me."

But more often than not, Joe DiPietro's (book and lyrics) and Jimmy Roberts' (music) revue is filled with refreshing material.  It also scores with audience because the songs are so relevant to the romantic experience.

And director-choreographer Dennis Courtney has the service of a versatile quartet of actor-singers in Heather Ayers, Jamison Stern, Ginette Rhodes and Brad Little.  Little has such a powerful big-musical voice, he seems wasted in these pleasant and melodic but undemanding songs.

Ms. Rhodes  scores big with "Always a Bridesmaid."  This sounds like a musical lament.  It isn't.  Instead, Ms. Rhodes is singing about the awful bridesmaid gowns brides have forced her to wear over many weddings.

We get to see the gowns that are designed in hilarious bad taste. Hung on painted cutouts of Ms. Rhodes, costume designer David Kay Mickelsen's sartorial nightmares travel past us on a turntable stage designed  by Felix E. Cochren.

In "Single Man Drought," Ms. Ayers and Ms. Rhodes express their frustrations over the boring sports-obsessed men they find themselves dating.  Their song waltzes back and forth between the women's forced conversations with their male dates and their truthful thoughts they share with the audience.

Occasionally, DiPietro and Roberts aren't afraid to engage in poignancy, either. Little and Ms. Ayers play an elderly man and woman who meet at a funeral but don't know the corpse. They seize the occasion in "I Can Live With That" to get aquatinted and possibly begin a romance.

"I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change" is a happy diversion.

Not one opera phantom, but two, will headline a second cabaret- style
fund-raiser to benefit the world's endangered cheetah population and the Tourism
Council of Greater Cincinnati.

Brad Little, who won the hearts of Cincinnati theater-goers while
playing the phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera" in 1996 -
and who fell in love with the zoo's female cheetah, Maya, during his spare
time - will return for "Angels of Music II: The Celebration Continues,"
June 14 at the Music Hall Ballroom.

He will be joined by another phantom, former Cincinnatian Ron Bohmer.

During the cabaret Bohmer and Little will perform songs from "Phantom,"
will sing a duet from "The Secret Garden" and may engage in a phantom
 duel.

They will be joined by Little's wife, Broadway performer Barbara
 McCulloh.

Cincinnati Pops conductor Erich Kunzel will host the event, and a few
surprises  reportedly are in store.

Little, Ms. McCulloh and Kunzel teamed up for the first Angels of Music
fund-raiser, which proved wildly popular, in 1997.

 Other guests at "Angels of Music II" will include Cathryn Hilker, head
of the zoo's Cat Ambassador Program, and a few of the zoo's big cats.

Funds raised for the zoo's Angel Fund, which is dedicated to preserving
the cheetah, will be doubled by the Robert B. Haas Foundation.

While Little continues to tour nationally as the phantom, Bohmer
concluded his phantom role with a separate tour last August and is gearing up to
 play the title role in "The Scarlet Pimpernel" when it opens on
Broadway in early September.

Bohmer, a graduate of the School for Creative and Performing Arts,
played the gigolo Joe Gillis in Webber's musical "Sunset Boulevard" at the
Aronoff Center for the Arts in August 1996.

He and Little, both lyric baritones, are longtime friends with somewhat
parallel careers. They performed in "Fiddler on the Roof" together
several years ago, on Broadway and on tour.

 Each has created his own Web site (http://www.ronbohmer.com/ and
http://www.bradlittle.com/), and each recently released his debut CD. (Little's: "Brad Little
Unmasked." Bohmer's: "Ron Bohmer - everyman.") Bohmer wrote four of the songs on
his CD.

For a while, Little and Bohmer were simultaneously engrossed in
"Phantom."

"I was doing it in one company in L.A., and he was doing it in another
company that was traveling around the country," Bohmer said in a
telephone interview.

"We would talk to each other on the phone and commiserate about the
difficulties and the joys of doing the role that people have no idea about - the
craziness of wearing all that makeup."

The role is extremely demanding, Bohmer said.

"It's like being shot out of a cannon. Because, as the phantom, you're
only on stage for about 30 minutes out of the entire show.

"But every minute of those 30 you're going 260 miles an hour. It's a
workout to get yourself cranked up, vocally, physically, emotionally.

"It was always great for Brad and me to be able to talk about the
particulars of that. To be able to say, isn't this bizarre, what we do for a
living? "Everyone else goes and gets behind their desk, and we sit in a makeup
chair and get turned into the ugliest man on earth. "To play that kind of tortured psyche eight times a week, it's a head trip."

It's also a heady experience.

"Brad and I both have talked about it: It's the closest in our lives
we'll come to knowing what someone like Michael Jordan feels like," Bohmer
said.

"There's nothing to compare to the feeling of coming out at the end of
your work and having a thousand people jump to their feet and show you
they really appreciate what you poured into it."

Bravura singing challenges spectacle in Cincinnati's second visit from "The Phantom of the Opera" - and it looks like a tie.

The vocalizing of Brad Little, as the Phantom of the Opera, and Kimilee Bryant, as the soprano the phantom loves but cannot win, brings thrills to the ears even as the opulent production seduces the eyes.

Of course, it's not hard to tell where the $8 million spent on Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical went.  Most of the money is in Cameron Macknitosh's production, which opened Friday night at the Aronoff Center for the Arts, providing grand views on stage.

Audiences arriving will see a huge black-and-gold false proscenium arch decorated with dramatically posed mythic figures.  When the curtain goes up, designer Maria Bjornson's spooky, heavily draped Paris Opera is revealed.

In the course of the melodrama, we see scenes from various operas.  One includes Hannibal's elephant and dancing chorus of slaves.

There's also a trip down to the phantom's lair beneath the opera house in a boat gliding through the mist.

And who hasn't heard of the chandelier the vengeful phantom cast down on the opera company.

Actually, the chandelier sort of coast down to the stage via cable, rather than crashing on it. But Friday night's audience  of 2,481 (2,700 capacity) displayed rapt attention whether they were seeing the show for the first time or not.

"The Phantom of the Opera" is not the kind of show that requires alot of brain power.  The spectacle is easy to watch, and Lloyed Webber has written a big, lush score, with songs like "Music of the Night."

Those melodic tunes and theater technology have put "The Phantom of the Opera" second only to Lloyd Webber's long running "Cats" in popularity.

"Phantom still is playing New York and London, where it opened in 1986.

But what often is missed amid the spectacle is that Lloyd Webber has written both  a sly satire on the excess of 19th- century opera and an  homage  to opera in his songs, which are composed for operatic voices..

Little's voice, with it's fine baritone-tenor range, has the power to make the phantom's anthems soar.

Ms. Bryant's Christine Daee is no shrinking soprano ingenue.  Her strong, well-controlled voice brings emotion to the second-act "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again."

The singing by the two leads brings to this melodrama a grandiosity that matches the sets.

A blossoming friendship with a special Cincinnati cat has added a new dimension to Brad Little's portrayal of the Phantom in "The Phantom of the Opera."

Little, who is starring in Andrew Lloyd Webber's sensation at the Aronoff Center for the Arts by night, has spent several days the Cincinnati Zoo, where he has befriended Maya, the zoo's female cheetah.

Maya's beauty and power have affected Little so much that he has incorporated some of her qualities into the persona of the anguished and lovelorn Phantom.

"We hit it off," Little said. "She tends to take to me. She has brought something to my life that I will never, ever forget."

"What's amazing is how much I have brought Maya into the Phantom, just by watching her. I see her do something, and I say, That is gorgeous," and I find myself bringing that onto the stage. It's a power she has. And what the Phantom is wanting is power."

Little has told Cathryn Hilker, head of the zoo's Cat Ambassador Program, that he will do whatever he can to help Maya, who has been "under the weather," possibly because of the cold temperatures. But Little, a lyric baritone, has stopped short of signing to the big cat.

"I'm too shy to do it when other people are around," he confessed.

While Maya has added an element of power and mystery to Little's Phantom, the singers own experience with dyslexia has helped him express the Phantom's suffering. (The Phantom, in Lloyd Webber's version of the story is a gifted composer who has suffered from a lifetime of ostracism because of facial deformities.)

"I used a lot of that experience with dyslexia when I was working with the Phantom," he said. "As a child I learned something of the pain of being beaten up and being outcast."

"I know the pain of what it can be like to be alone. There were kids who were very rude and mean - you know how kids can be - and for the longest time I thought I was mentally handicapped."

"When I started schooling I realized I was having trouble reading. We went through all the reading courses, and I thought for many years that I was mentally handicapped. I thought I was stupid. Later, I came to realize that I wasn't. But I still have problems with it."

Even today, Little avoids reading books. He says he leaves the family's "book smarts" to his wife, Barbara Mcculloh, an actress and Phi Beta Kappa who is appearing in the Broadway production of "The King and I."

Dyslexia propelled Little towards music. He was never able to read music proficiently, but he flourished as a singer because of his ear, voice and memory.

"My ear is one of my greatest talents," he said. "I will have someone teach me music by playing a song three time, and I'll have it down. I don't really read the music. I can see it a third or a half step; I can see it and I'll know it if I hear it. But my eye-to-brain reaction isn't fast enough for me to actually read at the speed it has to be read. I could never play the piano for that reason. It just won't compute."

No one who has seen Little on stage would ever guess at his struggles. He is a consummate performer who never allows less-than-an-all-out performance. Since the Cincinnati run of "Phantom of the Opera" began on Dec. 4, he has given eight performances a week. The performances are so physically demanding, he said, that when he comes off stage he can barley move.

Little admits that his voice often gets tired.

"There are times when I go on stage when it is very tired, and I am amazed that it can kick in. I'll be impressed that I could actually get through that one, because I could barley talk during the day."

Little, under contract to play the Phantom through next fall, can't say how long he will remain in the role. "Your body tells you that," he said. "It's similar to an athlete....If I chose, I could almost make a full-life career out of doing the Phantom. But I'm sure there will come a day when I'll have to call it quits. Then I would go audition and be unemployed until I found another job."

Perhaps, with a little inspiration from Maya, Little will want to try another of Lloyd Webber's musical blockbusters. "Cats."

The above article appeared in the Cincinnati Post and was printed here with their permission. 

Cincinnati Post Jan 10, 1997
 

 People plus

 For more than five weeks he has been the toast of the town, enveloped by cheers and standing ovations after every performance of "Phantom of the Opera" at the Aronoff Center for the Arts. Yet Brad Little, the Californian-turned-New Yorker, has been touring Cincinnati almost like a real phantom - virtually unrecognized wherever he goes. Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom," which
opened Dec. 4, runs through Jan. 25.

Q: Are you recognized often in Cincinnati?

 A: Not often. I'll have full conversations with people, and eventually  they'll say, "What do you do?" It's a lot of fun.

Q: Has playing the Phantom been your favorite role to date?

A: "It is the most exciting role I've ever had. Another amazing role was playing Jesus in "Jesus Christ Superstar" in Europe. That was quite an experience. But this one is unlike any other. In many ways I'm a non-star  playing a starring role.

Q: How long does it take to get your makeup on?

A: About 30 to 45 minutes.

Q: In the opera house roof scene, when you are up in the angel, do you  ever get dizzy?

A: No. I'm kind of a daredeveil. I'm very much an athlete. But it's very cramped up there. I can't move, because if I move I start rocking the angel. It's like rocking the boat. I have to sit perfectly still, and I'm up there a good 10 to 15 minutes.

Q: What kind of music do you listen to when you're relaxing?

A: Classical during the daytime. But before the show, I listen to music that will energize me, music with more of a beat, stuff that almost makes you want to dance. Like Michael Jackson.