Andrew Lloyd Webber said it was a "huge risk" when it opened

Cats has closed because it was deemed no longer economically viable to keep it going.

The final night saw a normal performance of the show but with a spectacular finale featuring cast members from past and present.

Among the famous names who have trod the boards down the years and reunited for the finale were Paul Nicholas and dancer Wayne Sleep.

The closure of Cats follows the curtain falling on another Lloyd Webber musical, Starlight Express, which finished its West End run in January.

Record breaker

The musical impresario will now turn his attention to his new show Bombay Dreams which opens in June.

Cats is the longest-running musical production in the West End and Broadway, where it closed in 2000.

It has taken �136m at London box offices and a further �1.25bn worldwide.

More than eight million people have enjoyed the show, which sets to music verses from TS Eliot's 1939 children's book Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

It won a Grammy, two Laurence Olivier awards and spawned the hit single Memory, performed by Elaine Paige.

Explaining the closure, executive producer Nick Allott said: "The houses were still very good, but it's an expensive show to run. There comes a point when the margins don't make sense any more.

"But when it ends it will take on a whole new life. There is a tour next year and it will be going out across the whole UK."