Last miaow for 'Cats' musical

"Cats" will go out on a high in London on its 21st anniversary

LONDON, England -- The cast of the musical 'Cats' past and present will come together in a grand finale for the last performance on its 21st anniversary.

Some of the original stars including Elaine Paige and Brian Blessed, along with 150 others who have appeared over the years, will be reunited on Saturday for the 9,000th and last show in the musical's record-breaking run in London's West End.

Demand has been so great to see the final show -- up to 30 times oversubscribed -- that a giant screen will show a video relay of the musical in the piazza at Covent Garden.

Managers decided to bring down the curtain on the show despite it being the longest-running musical production in London because of a down-turn in audiences.

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The closure is being linked to a slump in London theatre attendances with overseas tourists staying away due to foot-and-mouth fears last year and worries about flying since September 11.

A spokesman for 'Cats' said in January, when it was announced the musical would close, that the team "wanted it to go out on a high on its 21st birthday."

The original cast is expected to play a part in a new additional choreographed ending on Saturday.

Blessed and Paige will be accompanied at the New London Theatre by dancer Wayne Sleep and actor Paul Nicholas.

The first night of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Cats' in 1981 was interrupted by a bomb scare which caused the theatre to be evacuated.

Based on the poems of TS Eliot from his Old Possum's Book Of Practical Cats, the London production has taken £136 million and been seen by more than eight million people.

The stunning costumes have thrilled eight million West End theatregoers

It even spawned a hit single with Memory by Paige reaching number six in the UK chart. Radio airplays of the song in the U.S. went past the two million mark in 1998.

Cats is the second highest grossing musical of all time, behind The Phantom Of The Opera. Its worldwide box office totals more than £1.4 billion.