End near for ‘Mamma Mia!’ cast

You can almost count theater gigs in dog years. "In our business, the average length of a run is six weeks," says Derrick Trumbly.

Six years is a long time then for the 30 "Mamma Mia!" actors, many of whom will be looking for work after the musical closes at Mandalay Bay on Jan. 4.

"It's interesting being backstage now," says Tim Tucker, one of three who stuck with the show since it opened in February 2003. "There are moments when we're our same ol' fun selves. Then there are moments when it hits you," such as the last time he got to step in as an understudy and perform one of the lead roles. "Sometimes you see it in people's faces: 'This is when it's going to end.' "

When cast members of the next show, "The Lion King," staged a recent preview for those in the industry, "it was like watching those people on our stage," Tucker says with a laugh.

A milestone is one thing, a job quite another. While Tucker and Brad Gray plan to make it to the finish line, a third original cast member, Rick Pessagno, bows out Dec. 21, to take a vacation before he hits the road with a national tour of "Fiddler on the Roof."

But the three leads -- Carol Linnea Johnson, Vicki Van Tasel and Robin Baxter -- have been intact three years, a marked contrast to the six months or year's rotation that's more standard for other "Mamma Mia!" companies.

"I've made really good friends in six weeks," Trumbly says of those more typical "bus and truck" tours, so he hopes to see these castmates down the road. "It's not like these relationships are coming to a close," he says. "I hope they're not."

That's one reason why he organized a late-night cabaret show, "Mamma Mia's Last," for Tuesday night at the Liberace Museum. Cast members will perform songs from other musicals, or song parodies they've worked up for past benefits. A $10 donation helps the Liberace Foundation, and seating begins at 10:30 p.m.

Tucker believes these types of gatherings, such as Keith Thompson's monthly "Composer's Showcase," are the real legacy of "Mamma Mia!" "We were primary in starting that community," he says. "We've really dug into the community on a number of different levels."

He says he moved to Las Vegas figuring the gig might last three years if he was lucky. "I loved the show but did not like Vegas the first year," he recalls. That changed, in part because "getting a house and being in one place is such a luxury item in this business."

Now, he plans to stay here and launch an online news magazine, Vegas Now TV. As the "wise old owl" who has seen many cast members rotate through, "I always tried to tell them, 'Kid, you're starting at the top. If you're frustrated with any of the conditions here, go do a summer stock and see how it compares.' "

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.