Brad Little always has known he could sing better than most, even when the other children in his neighborhood in Redlands, Calif., called him "stupid" and the school board labeled him "special."
"I thought the only thing I could do was sing," says Little, who's dyslexic. Sing he can.  He proves it every night he takes the stage as The Phantom in Cameron Mackintosh's national touring company production of "The Phantom of the Opera."
He mesmerizes audiences with his portrayal of the tortured, disfigured composer obsessed with the beautiful soprano Christine in Andrew Lloyd Webber's spectacular now playing at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall.
For two years and three months, Little has played the leading character in what is considered the biggest show on Earth.  Before that, he played Raoul, also in love with Christine, in "Phantom" on Broadway. And before that, Little appeared in numerous shows in New York and national tour productions. Some of
his leading parts include Che in "Evita," and the title role in Jesus Christ Superstar" and Billy Crocker in "Anything Goes."
Not bad for someone who used to think of himself as retarded.
"I never learned how to read," he says. "In my mind I was retarded. It was like I was in a dark tunnel for years."
However, Little is far from "retarded." He is dyslexic.  "My brain works and my eyes work, but they don't connect," he explains.
His parents realized their son was dyslexic after watching a Phil Donahue show.  By then, Little was a teen-ager. Suddenly he emerged from the dark tunnel.  Knowing it is perfectly normal for someone who is severely dyslexic not to read, he began taking oral test.
"My folks spent hours reading to me."  And Little went on to make the honor roll.  Still, not being able to read music stopped him from pursuing college.  Instead, at age 20 (he won't reveal his age now), he went to New york and began looking for singing jobs.  He memorizes pieces of music after hearing them usually just twice.  This is how he learned the music for "Phantom."
He also studied the part by digging deep into his own past. "I can't compare it (his disability) to the physical deformity of the phantom, " Little says. But I do know what it is like to be shunned by your peers."

"The Phantom of the Opera" unfolded onstage Friday night like a gigantic living, writhing package filled with layers of surprises.
The playgoers who packed into the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall for Friday's performance of the Andrew Lloyd Webber spectacular reacted like children at the circus, oohing and aahing.
When the famous chandelier first came sweeping down over the heads of the playgoers you could hear the gasp, see the heads stretching as the fixture moved slowly up to the rafters.
Their pleasures at the theatricality and the passion of it all was palpable.
Fort Myers should feel proud it has a hall like the Mann, grand enough for a show of this caliber.
And be assured producer Cameron Mackintosh is right: This production of what is considered the biggest show on earth is top quality, the same as you would see in London's West End or on Broadway.
It's a love story, inspired by tales of a ghost in the Paris Opera House in the early 1900's. Gaston Leroux, a French newspaper reporter-turned-mystery writer became intrigued with the eerie tales and wrote "Le Fantome de L'Opera."
And in 1984 musical genius Andrew Lloyd Webber and marketing marvel Mackintosh, who first hit the heights together with with their production of "Cats," turned Leroux's classic mystery into a musical of gigantic proportions.  Why, there's more happening on stage in this show than there was in old productions by Barnum and Bailey.  Your eyes can't possibly see it all in one sitting.
But "The Phantom of the Opera" is far, far more than a circus. At it's core, it's an agony-and-ectasy sort of story about unrequited love. It's about the pure beauty of a mans love for a beautiful woman. pitted against the repulsive disfigurement of his face - a face that frightens all who all who see it, a face that at times turns him into a beast.
While it's a technical masterpiece, it's the story and Lloyd Webber's glorious music - melodic and stirring, at times tragic - that stays with you long after you leave the theatre.
Brad Little plays the Phantom, the ghost of the opera house. He is  a tortured composer who writes an opera for the woman he loves, a once unknown member of the chorus named Christine, played by Amy Jo Arrington.
Little makes you see the very soul of the phantom, Christine's angel of the night. His singing during the "Music of the Night" lifts you into spiritual heights as the character pours out his love
for the innocent young soprano in his secret place by the lake, under the opera house.
Later, after the tender love scene between Christine and Raoul (Jason Pebworth), who is also passionately in love with Christine, Little turns his character into a raging jealous lover.
Arrington has a voice like an angel.  She takes you with her into the character's journey with the phantom from lightness through the fog down into the depths of his dark world.
"The Phantom of the Opera" is not an unknown, but it is a must-see-production. By the end of the first act, people were caught up in the magic of the show and were already raving.
And by the time Little came downstage to take his bow at the end playgoers were on their feet cheering.
And the magic of it al stayed with many playgoers.
"That was a wonderful love story," said a happy playgoer.
That it was.