Brad Little, who will star in the Memphis premiere production of Phantom of the Opera, says playing Phantom is so overwhelming, he wishes you could experience it yourself.

"It's such an amazing experience for me, I wish I could hand the voice and the body over to other people just to experience what it's like," Little said by phone from Tampa, as he prepares to leave that city for Memphis.

The Memphis engagement of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical runs Wednesday through Dec. 13 at the Orpheum.

Little's favorite moment in the show falls in the final scene, when the Phantom is at the end of his rope. "I come off that scene every single night, my shoulders hunched over at the end, and I'm just wiped out, sweating like mad. Makeup artists are always looking at my bald cap to make sure
I haven't sweated it off.

"That's the scene I wish I could have everyone experience because you experience every emotion: love, anger, everything. You go from singing to physical acting to some very emotional stuff. In many ways, it's a five-minute musical for me."

As the deformed creature who lives deep below the Paris opera house and haunts the theater to retain control of its productions and grow close to his beloved soprano, Christine, Little must appear human and monster-like. "I like to actually add both elements into the role," he said. "I do believe the human factor is important, but there is a definite monster side to him.

"It's also important for him to have qualities we would not normally accept into society. He doesn't know what it's like to live in the outside world, even though he is human. Trying to find that quality is not an easy task, but it makes the job more challenging and makes me able to do it eight times a week."

Little, who declines to give his age, may no longer be so sure himself what it's like living on the outside world. Although based in New York, he lives on the road, touring with Phantom of the Opera most of the time.

A native Californian, Little makes his permanent home in Manhattan with his wife, Barbara McCulloh, an actress who is also on the road these days, touring with Peter Pan.

According to Little, the late '90s have been good to both of them because "both our careers are kind of shooting off. She just closed in The King and I on Broadway, and I had been doing Phantom on Broadway for two years. This has been great because, oh, we definitely had our struggling phase. When we met we had no Broadway credits to our names.

"But one day last year, in the summer of '96, we were both on Broadway in a starring role. It's a day we will never forget." They popped a bottle of champagne to celebrate.

Little describes Phantom as a role "most musical theater actors would  just die to get. I have a lot of friends trying to get this role." He left the Broadway production of Phantom, in which he played the second male lead of Raoul, to get the part.

Like a number of his colleagues in the large Phantom cast, Little moved up through the ranks. "I actually have been involved in Phantom for the last 3 1/2 years. I started in the chorus."

But by now, Little has been singing behind Phantom's mask for so long that "it actually feels funny not to wear it. I feel very naked." Not long ago he sang Music of the Night, probably the Phantom's signature song, at a benefit concert in Cincinnati, and he felt a little foolish without the
mask and "with a smile on my face all the time."

Assuming the role of the Phantom eight times a week has meant more personal changes as well. The vocal role calls for a wide range, and demands extreme control in the upper falsetto range of the male voice. To keep that control consistently, Little had to give up one of his favorite vices.

"It's one of the reasons I don't drink coffee anymore," he said. "In order to do the falsetto. If I drink coffee, my nerves start kicking in, and I start losing control. In Music of the Night, I have to be so relaxed, so calm to really let the light notes fly. I have to quit or cut down."

In Tampa, Little has been ill, making things "very difficult. I have to do a little more finessing with the voice, which is not a very good thing to do. But I've been doing Phantom for more than a year now, and I think I've pretty much got it down."