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"Mamma Mia!" is a beginning for Lizzie Markson, but it's also an ending for a beloved musical.

Markson plays Sophie in the musical based on ABBA's songs, and this is her first role since graduating from Elon University in spring 2016. It's also a last for the show, which is bringing its farewell tour to Salt Lake City's Eccles Theater on Feb. 2-5.

"Audiences are with us unlike other shows. They're singing and clapping along, sometimes during the show, but always during the finale, where they're on their feet dancing," Markson said. "There's a palpable feeling, and part of it has to be knowing this will be the last time the show is being done in its original imagining of it. This is the last time it will be performed in the way people know and love it."

That poignancy helps Markson bring her all to each performance, she said, despite the rigorous travel schedule of the show.

Often, the performers are on a bus for several hours, unpack and perform a single show before packing up again and performing elsewhere in the country.

"The audience doesn't care you've been sitting on a bus all day. It's been about maintaining the show and finding out what I can do and what I have to do to perform my best show," she said.

The several days in Salt Lake City will be a welcome respite from recent near-daily road trips.

Regardless of the travel schedule, Markson said she is filled with optimism and energy every time she takes the stage as Sophie.

"Sophie is so hopelessly optimistic and spunky. It's fun to be filled with that energy every night. … It's fun to be filled with the boundless joy that Sophie has," said Markson, who relates to the character well as she describes herself as bubbly, bold and zealous.

While her favorite parts of the show can change night to night or rise to the top for a few weeks until something else strikes her, she said the most consistently enjoyable part of the show for her is "Honey Honey." It's the number where she explains her plot to find out who her father is by inviting three of her mother's past flames to her wedding 20 years after her mother's romance with one of them. Sophie gets to tease out the information to her friends Lisa (played by Niki Badua) and Ali (played by Chloe Kounadis).

"We are just having the times of our lives, and I get to unravel the whole scheme to them," Markson said. "It's like hanging out with your best friends, and it's before things go wrong, so there is so much hope and optimism that things will go perfectly."

That bubbly energy is found in the bulk of the songs throughout the musical. While the songs were written in the 1970s, the musical came to life in 1999. Its 14 years on Broadway made it the eighth-longest-running show there. The costumes still pay homage to the '70s, with brightly colored bellbottoms and peasant skirts garbing the performers, and the Greek-isle setting is helped with plenty of blue and white costumes as well.

The fun and engaging story is something Markson is delighted to share with audiences every night.

"I hope that the audience can spend 2 ½ hours in our world and escape anything and everything else because I think everyone needs that right now and always," she said. "The message I hope others take away from the show is to appreciate what's right in front of you instead of spend your energy searching for something you think is better. That, and I hope they take home the message of appreciating their mothers." —

How can I resist you?

The touring production of "Mamma Mia!" comes to town as part of the Broadway at the Eccles season.

When • Feb. 2-5; Thursday, 7:30 p.m.; Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m.; and Sunday, Feb. 5, 1 p.m.

Where • Eccles Theater, 131 S. Main St., Salt Lake City

Tickets • $30 to $95; http://www.broadway-at-the-eccles.com or 801-355-ARTS