Fans bid farewell to ‘Mamma Mia!’

"Mamma Mia!" closed in Las Vegas for good Sunday night, even though it still was earning money and standing ovations. It met its end to make way for younger royalty: "The Lion King" takes its crown at Mandalay Bay in April. "Mamma Mia" was 6 years old.

Once the final curtain fell, cast members strutted into an after party in the hotel's House of Blues Foundation Room. There in the golden-gilded glory of an ornate dining suite, actors burst into song, drank wine and dipped crème de Pirouline wafers into a five-tier chocolate fountain.

This was a final splendor, sprinkled with adoring fans. Victor Wallace -- who played Sam the American among possible dads in "Mamma" -- signed autographs for longtime fans, who lined up for pictures with him and other leads.

Sometime today, Wallace expects to leave all that and Las Vegas:

"I'm going back to New York and auditions to find my next gig. That's the nature of the beast. It's show biz. It's the life I chose."

In high demand at the party was the blonde in the blue dress, Carol Linnea Johnson. She played Donna the mamma in "Mamma." She's staying in Vegas, singing on the side in the gypsy-jazz group Hot Club of Las Vegas.

"But it's a great exodus on Monday," she said. "I think everybody's going back to New York or L.A."

Yes, that exodus began Monday, as in yesterday. Last year, it was "Spamalot's" closing that led to thespians' fleeing back to New York. Now it's "Mamma's" family. And it was Bloody Sunday on the Strip. "Stomp Out Loud" shut at Planet Hollywood. "Raw Talent Live" folded at the Sahara.

Before "Mamma's" nervous-energy farewell, Johnson remained purposely "so Zen" about its closing, feeling grateful for its run, allowing her to spend days with her daughter, while working with "amazing people," including her on-cast husband, Don Burroughs.

A few hours before her last performance, it finally got to her unexpectedly.

"My husband said, 'The battery's dead in the garage door opener. Where are the batteries?' And I went, 'Aahhhh!' I just burst into tears," she told me, her eyes swelling with tears. "I just grieved. Because, I'll miss it. I'll miss the people. I'll miss the people I meet after the show, who are so generous with their stories about what it means to them and why they keep coming back."

Johnson said fans connected emotionally to the ABBA-tuned musical because of its relationship between a mother and daughter; longtime friendships among female characters; and themes of losing a love and rediscovering a new path at an older age.

"Then, you get to have this great, fun, dancing ending. You leave feeling so much better. It's cheap therapy," she said.

She has her memories. One time on stage, Johnson's overalls unsnapped.

"I caught them right before they hit the floor," she said. "I would have been bottomless."

Wallace started the show six years ago as the boy character engaged to the ingenue, left the show for a few years, and returned to portray one of the ingenue's father figures.

"The crazy thing is aging a generation during the three years I was gone," he said. "I put a little gray in my hair."

Onstage Sunday, Wallace wanted to keep the finality out of his head.

"But sometimes, it creeps in and says, 'OK, that's the last time I said that. That's the last time I'm going to do that,' " he said. "A lot of us had to take a breath, so we wouldn't be overcome with emotion. ... Focus on the character. ... Otherwise, it becomes too personal."

Johnson talked herself through certain moments.

"In the first act, I had so much adrenaline, and it was such a rush, I kind of blew my voice out a little bit," she said. "In the second act, I was nervous and said, 'Oh God, I've got to come up with the goods.' "

At last, she finished her big number, "The Winner Takes It All," and "the bottom dropped out for me a little bit."

All she could think was: "You may end up doing (the role) again. But you won't be doing it here. It will never be this again."

Doug Elfman's column appears on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at 702-383-0391 or delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.