Like the title character he plays in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera," Brad Little has faced a few of his own personal demons since he donned the Phantom's mask. This is not the case of an actor getting so deep into a character's life and the "Music of the Night" that he can't live his own. But Little, who arrives in the national tour that opens Wednesday night at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, said he understands what it is like to be ridiculed by the rest of society.

The phantom was born with a hideous face that forced him to wear a white mask and live in the catacombs of the Paris Opera house. Little has spent his life struggling with dyslexia.

The actor said he "didn't come out" about his reading and learning disability until he got the phantom's role last year. "Now I talk to schools.  People didn't understand why this person who seems pretty normal can't read, or the pain of having somebody come up and say, 'Will you read this?' As opposed to saying that I am dyslexic and can't do it, I'd attempt to do it and would get ridiculed, " he said.

Little said he's a quick learner. "My whole life has been based on memorizing. Dyslexia is simply a page-to-eye-to-brain communication problem. The brain works perfectly well. It's just some communication from the eye to the brain that gets scrambled. Once I get it in there, even if I have to hear it or have it read to me, I'm pretty quick at memorizing it."

While the Phantom turns to Christine Daae, a young opera singer who becomes his "angel of music," Little relies on his wife, Barbara McCulloh, "my angel of books," to help him learn his roles.

His year of touring in "Phantom" has made it difficult to spend much time with McCulloh, an actress. "it has been an amazing - probably the most amazing - year that I have ever had," he said in a telephone interview from Columbus, Ohio. "The hardest part was spending so much time away from Barbara."

"That's going to make thing's more difficult because we'll both be on the road, but that's also keeping me on the road. If she were at home in New York, I'd probably be calling it quits and heading home."

{This is not} Little's first association with the Lloyd Webber's musical, which returns Wednesday for it's second extended engagement in the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center (it runs for six weeks through Nov. 2). On Broadway, he played Raoul, the phantom's rival for the affection of Christine.

The touring production is designed to match the look of the Broadway version, with candelabras rising out of the billowing fog of the Phantom's lair and a chandelier crashing on stage.

Little admits the role of the Phantom may be more demanding vocally and physically, but playing Raoul is a greater acting challenge.

"There's not as much written about Raoul as a character. The challenge there was to make him an interesting character, because he's just not written that way. in the script ." Little says.

That's not a problem when playing the masked phantom, who haunts the catacombs of the Paris Opera House and terrorizes the staff to ensure that Christine, his "angel of music," has a chance to become the star he wants her to be.

"The phantom is just a brilliantly written part, which is easier on the actor. We don't have to do as much to make his character as brilliant as it is," he said.

In the tour, he shares the stage with Kimilee Bryant as Christine and Jason Pebworth as Raoul. Bryant starred as Christine in the Swiss premiere of "Phantom" and also played the role on Broadway. Pebworth has performed in regional productions of "Evita," "South Pacific" and numerous other musicals.

While the role has become simpler after a year of performance, Little said it is still hard work to put himself in the Phantom's life. "I couldn't even fathom what he would be feeling, the emotion of living in a dungeon his whole life, never knowing society as we know it, only as we show it in operas. He see life from the audience. If I'm really making the character real, what goes through a person mind with only that as their window to the world."

Before joining Lloyd Webber's musical, Little also played the title character in "Phantom," another musical version of the Gaston Leroux novel by Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit.

"The musicals are so different, but in a way, I think playing the other phantom helped me with this phantom. It gave me a solid base that I could go with. It was an extension if the story."

Even after all this time in the show, Little said he has trouble explaining the musical's popularity.