AURORA -- The Phantom bared his tortured soul Tuesday to Crawford
Elementary School students.

Brad Little, who plays the title role in Phantom of the Opera at Denver's
Buell Theater, revealed that he has dyslexia.

"I had a really, really hard time with school ... I thought I was stupid,"
said Little. "I learned there were others like me and that we were normal,
but we had a deformity, just like the Phantom."

Little, 35, talked to the students about self-esteem, learning
disabilities, success and hard work. He also told the children to not be
afraid to get help in learning.

The children were inspired.

"I know I can read better, just like he did," said Omar Renteria, 8.

Mack Oram, 9, a third-grader, wants to help a friend who's suffering a
learning disability. He also proudly displayed Little's autograph on the
torn-off corner of a sheet of paper.

Little said the best way to beat a disability is to get help.

He said his wife helps him learn his lines by reading them to him and
sometimes recording them so that he can play it back.

Little credited his rare off-stage performance Tuesday to his 15-year
friendship with Crawford Principal Suzanne Morey, a former off-Broadway
actress whom he met in a production of Evita. She played the title role
while Little sang in the chorus.

Wide-eyed third- and fourth-grade students sat in awe of their
multi-talented principal and Little as they belted out the songs Beauty and
the Beast and a tongue-twisting tune All for the Best

"She sings down the hallway all the time, so I wasn't surprised," said
Alfonso Padilla, 9, a fourth-grader. "She's really good."

Morey said she enjoys sharing her love of theater and the arts with her
students.

"The basics still come first, but I'd hate to see it at the expense of
losing the arts."

Dec. 6 - The music of the night is as thrilling as ever as "The Phantom of the Opera'' returns to the Buell Theatre for the fourth time this decade.

In a show where the "look'' is as important as the story and the music, the sets are lavish and lovely - from the dark, mist-swirled lake from which dozens of glowing candles rise, to the immense red-lit grand staircase filled with wildly costumed revelers ( "Masquerade.'')

We still stare upward openmouthed at the huge chandelier that swings out over the seats, and gasp when it later "crashes'' in an explosion of light and sound.

We still laugh at the antics of the Phantom as he capers in the dizzy above-stage reaches, and swivel our heads about in the scenes where his voice booms out through the huge auditorium, seeming to come at us from everywhere.

Based on the Gaston Leroux novel, and set in 1881 in the Paris Opera House, "The Phantom of the Opera'' is a ghoulish tale of a mad, disfigured "opera ghost'' who lives in the bowels of the theater and does away with those who would thwart the operatic career of his beloved Christine.

Directed to perfection by Harold Prince, this production of "The Phantom of the Opera,'' with its over-the-top story and rumbling organ music that ranges from triumphant to ominous to wildly discordant, is as fresh as when the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical made its first visit to Denver in December 1991.

And the Phantom - embodied by tall, impressive Brad Little - is the best yet.

Blessed with a rich, seductive voice ( "The Music of the Night,'' "All I Ask of You,'' "The Point of No Return'') Little is everything the role requires.

Exciting throughout, he's sensual and sexy as the masked monster obsessed with his talented protegeée, frightening in his murderous madness and deeply empathetic as a man doomed to a hellish, hidden life by his horrendously disfigured appearance.

Warm, willowy, crystal-voiced Rebecca Pitcher is an excellent match for Little as Christine, - and when she swoons under the Phantom's insistent caresses, we believe it.

David Cryer and Bill Carmichael exhibit comic expressiveness and great timing as the two partners who buy the Paris Opera, only to be beset with wild happenings, disappearing cast members and a determined Phantom who barrages them with written demands ( "Notes.'')

Built like a fireplug and bouncing like a determined tugboat, Julie Schmidt scores laughs as the spoiled demanding diva, Carlotta, while Sally Williams is appropriately imperious and mysterious as Madame Giry, the ballet mistress who sometimes serves as the Phantom's go-between. As Raoul, the young Vicomte who falls in love Christine, pleasant-voiced Richard Todd Adams doesn't have much to do but look pretty, but he does it well.

It just goes to show you: The fourth time's a charm.

The Phantom of the Opera returns for its fourth appearance at the Denver Performing Arts Complex -- a national record. What's even better is that this lead Phantom, Brad Little, has more passion, pathos and sexuality than any of the previous three ... even Michael Crawford.

The drama begins to unfold as the wispy Christine Daae (Rebecca Pitcher) is coached by an "angel," during Angel of Music. Unfortunately, her savior turns out to be the Phantom of the Opera or, as he calls himself, a "loathsome gargoyle."

The vindictive Phantom has been horribly disfigured and chooses to live in the bowels of the Paris Opera House. Eventually he frightens the star singer, Carlotta (played on press night by the capable understudy Diane Jennings), into refusing to sing to allow his talented prodigy to perform the opera he has written -- Don Juan Triumphant.

Things go awry when Christine falls in love with Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny (performed straightforwardly yet blandly by Richard Todd Adams).

The Phantom makes every effort to keep the two apart, including throwing fire balls during the Opera ball and sending the grand chandelier crashing down during a performance. (Note to those in rows A through G: Watch your heads).

In desperation, he kidnaps the girl and takes her down to his lair during the infamous "candles from nowhere" scene as the Phantom's boat glides across a misty subterranean lake.

De Chagny goes after them, which leads to the show's final, desperate confrontation. The Phantom loosens the ropes that bind De Chagny, signifying that ultimately love conquers all.

Some find this period melodrama gripping and moving, unable to hold back their tears of emotion. Others can only shake their heads and wonder why this musical has become such a phenomenon ... wandering libretto, repetitive score and all. This writer leans toward the latter, yet the unmistakable power of Phantom is difficult to dismiss.

What never ceases to amaze anyone are the lavish effects. Beginning with the life-size elephants in the opening opera-within-an-opera, this show pops from one special effect to the next. One of the highlights is the Act Two opener, Masquerade, with the entire ensemble regaled in elaborate finery. (Watch for the mannequins employed along the stairway.)

While no one in this cast carries any name recognition, everyone is of fine voice, most notably the ethereal Pitcher as well as the opera managers, Monsieur Andre (Bill Carmichael) and Monsieur Firmin (David Cryer).

The Phantom of the Opera has been a money-making, international crowd-pleaser since its premiere in 1986. Producer Cameron Mackintosh, director Harold Prince and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber are intelligent enough to not allow their "baby" to show signs of age. This production is as soaring and dramatic as any seen before.
 
 

 This time around, the Phantom will linger back-stage for a bit longer than usual.
Brad Little, who opens as The Phantom of the Opera Friday at the Buell Theatre, plans to hang around for a few days, just long enough for his wife, Barbara McCulloh, to roll into town with Denver Center Attractions' next production, Peter Pan.

''We close on Saturday, and then she comes in on Monday and I don't have to be down to Tempe until Wednesday," Little says. "So we will have about 24 hours to say hello to each other. That's all right. We're used to it."

Little has been on tour as the Phantom for three years, so he and his wife have been making travel arrangements since long before she was cast as Mrs. Darling.

"In my contract, I have what I call my conjugal-visit clause," he says, laughing. "We get three days about every two to three weeks to see each other."

Little has been playing the Phantom on the road for three years, yet says he isn't bored.

"For one, the role is just a brilliant role, and I can keep it fresh by all the different things that I can do onstage," he says. "I also have a wonderful leading lady that I play opposite, and we tend to change little things here and there, energies. We have to say the same lines, we have to basically be in the same place, but there are little nuances we can change, which is wonderful and keeps the show extremely fresh for both of us."

Before being cast as the Phantom, Little had learned the show from a different angle. On Broadway, he played Raoul, the second male lead.

"People always ask what's the better role and I'm like, 'Oh, come on, let's get real here,"' he says.

Once he assumed the lead in the touring company, Little could have stayed in the shadow of the very popular Phantoms to come before him, particularly originator Michael Crawford. Instead, he's now the subject of his own fan club, with a polished Web site (www.bradlittle.com) created by one of his devoted fans.

"It's amazing how little comparison there's been," he says. "People will come up to the stage door and say, 'Oh, I saw Michael Crawford,' 'Oh, I saw Robert Guillaume do it.' It's not as intimidating as I thought it would be. When I first started, I thought it would be horrible, but it's not that bad, because it's a role that you can play so many different ways."

The trick, Little says, is for an actor to make the character his own.

"I think we all tend to play this role a little differently," he says. "I want him to be sexy, I want him to be scary, I want people to hate him, I want people to like him in a way, but I want there to be this sort of confusion."

Confusion is something Little understands. In fact, it brings him closer to the character at hand.

"Most people I have talked to say it's really difficult to compare the Phantoms," he says. "Because it's not like a normal person, or anybody that we can really relate to, to be shunned that much by society.

"The closest that I have ever been able to get as far as relating to that is that I'm dyslexic, and when I was a child kids beat up on me and called me stupid. I had no friends, really, and it was just a very isolating time in my life."

Little found his place in the theater -- where he found his wife as well. The two were playing the romantic leads in a regional theater production of The Robber Bridegroom when they met. In addition to writing "conjugal visits" into his contracts, Little plans to take a few months off when his contract ends March 1.

"I'm going to become a professional husband for a little while," he says. "I need to give my wife as much time as I've given the Phantom."
 
 

Nov. 28 - The Phantom of the Opera'' sweeps back into the Buell Theatre Wednesday for a holiday run that will be sure to draw plenty of Denver fans of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

But while many of them will be returning to see the show for a second or third time knowing everything about "Phantom,'' few will know much about the work that inspired the musical or the opera house that inspired the author.
 

The novel "The Phantom of the Opera'' was written by M. Gaston Leroux, a lawyer turned journalist turned novelist, and was published in 1911. As a drama critic, he had attended the Opera Garnier in Paris and had heard the stories of an opera ghost. He imagined the underground passages of the opera house as a perfect setting where, during years of construction, an architect (with a passion for music) could have made his own labyrinth, known only to himself.

Largest theater In his novel, Leroux weaves legend, fear and fact into a fictional story of investigative journalism. In the introduction, he claims to have investigated the famous kidnapping of Christine Daee, more than 30 years earlier. His conclusion is that the opera ghost was not a creature of the imagination but that he really existed. He claims that he was able to prove a corpse found in the substructure of the opera was not that of a French Commune prisoner but was the opera ghost himself.
It was an elaborate and far fetched tale, but one that fit the building in which it was set. Built in the last part of the 19th century, Opera Garnier is the largest theater in the world. Designed as the focal point of the Place de l'Opera, from which seven boulevards radiate in the center of Paris, Opera Garnier covers almost 3 acres.

It was built by order of Napoleon III as part of the great Parisian reconstruction project. Charles Garnier, a 35-year-old, relatively unknown architect, was selected from 171 architects. Construction, which began in 1861, took 15 years to complete. The building was statefunded and cost 47 million francs.

Underground lake Initial delays in construction were caused when an underground stream was discovered running through the site. Elaborate efforts were made to lower the water level, but eventually the water formed an eerie subterranean lake that was put to practical use, helping to operate hydraulic stage machinery. More delays were encountered during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the Commune of Paris.
 

During the Commune, the unfinished opera house was used as an arsenal, a warehouse for storing food, a million liters of wine, and eventually a prison. The Commune of Paris ended with the burning of public buildings, including parts of the Louvre, but the opera was spared.

The Opera Garnier opened in January 1875 with a staff of 1,500 and two ballet schools. It is 17 stories high, seven of which are below street level. A vast maze includes stairways and corridors, lifts, ladders and chutes, 2,500 doors, 80 dressing rooms for principals, eight large dressing rooms for up to 200 members of the chorus and orchestra, salons, cloakrooms and guard rooms. The underground levels housed a stable large enough for 20 horses, six carriages and 100 people.

The centerpiece of the 1,900-seat auditorium is the ornate, 8-ton crystal chandelier, designed by Garnier. During an 1896 performance, one of the 1,700-pound counterweights used to keep the chandelier in position broke loose and crushed a patron. The accident received sensational coverage in the press. "A dead man's skull' Leroux used his extensive knowledge of the opera house to lend an air of authenticity to his story. Fans of the Lloyd Webber production would recognize all of the main characters in the novel.

The phantom is "extraordinarily thin and his dress-coat hangs on a skeleton frame. His eyes are so deep that you can hardly see the fixed pupils. All you see is two big black holes, as in a dead man's skull. His skin, which is stretched across his bones like a drumhead, is not white, but a dirty yellow.''
Christine, under the power of the Angel of Music, triumphs over Carlotta, Raoul is lovestruck, and the new opera managers are befuddled by the notes signed "O.G.'' The opera house and its history provide the perfect setting for murder and intrigue. Leroux describes "a secret passage, long known to himself alone ... had been contrived at the time of the Paris commune, to allow the gaolers to convey their prisoners straight to the dungeons constructed for them in the cellars.''
 

Novel flopped It might surprise contemporary "Phantom'' devotees that the novel received little attention when it was published. However, it became a popular newspaper serial in France, England, and the United States, often accompanied with graphics of the phantom at his organ or swinging on the chandelier. Lon Chaney's "The Phantom of the Opera'' is one of the best remembered films of the silent era. No French filmmaker has ever made a film of Leroux's story.
In October, the facade of the Opera Garnier was completely covered in tarp and scaffolding so the stone could be cleaned to remove the discoloring caused from years of pollution. The cleaning is scheduled for completion in June.

Opera Garnier is now used exclusively for classical ballet, and Paris' new opera house, Opera Bastille, is used for opera. The underground passages are used for storage and are not accessible. The lake is an on-site reservoir in case of fire and is drained every few years so that the foundation can be inspected by boat.

The chandelier with 400 bulbs hangs from a ceiling painted with images of various operas and ballets by Marc Chagall in 1962. Box 5 is clearly marked at its entrance but is otherwise undistinguishable from the other red velvet boxes.

The Grand Staircase still has an air of mystery and majesty. Dimly lit by electrically powered candlelights, it is cast in shadows. It is easy to imagine masqueraders parading down the stairs.
 

None of the official literature describing Opera Garnier mentions the phantom. But tourists from around the world talk in hushed tones about the former resident of this grand opera house.
An exhibit of photos by Margaret Marshall Rhyne, including photos of Paris and the Opera Garnier, will hang in the balcony of the Buell in December and January.