The national tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's venerable musical, Cats, had reached Blackpool when I put a call in to Stuart Ramsey.

He is the current embodiment of the cheeky rock 'n' rolling Rum Tum Tugger. Strolling down the Golden Mile, he told me the discomfort of an English heatwave was nothing to giving nightly shows in an excruciatingly hot fur mane.

Not that he was complaining.

Along with the rest of the cast and sell-out audiences across the country, he was relishing the chance to be part of the phenomenon that has taken the show to record-breaking success.

The spark that ignited the composition was a chance re-encounter Lloyd Webber had in 1977 with TS Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

He recalled his mother had read these poems to him during his childhood and recognised a creative treatment of their zany mischief could enthral a new audience as irresistibly as they had his younger self.

After first setting some of the poems as a concert piece, Lloyd Webber drew together an artistic team including lyricists Richard Stilgoe and Tim Rice, choreographer Gillian Lynn and the producer/director partnership of Cameron Mackintosh and Trevor Nunn.

The original production opened in 1981 and went on to become the longest-running musical to appear in the British theatre.

It had a similar success on Broadway and throughout the world.

It was, astonishingly, the first British musical to be staged in the Soviet Union.

Ramsey makes no apology for Cats being 22 years old.

"It has," he says, "a new lease of life on this national tour. At a time when the West End seems to be dying on its feet, it has been difficult to get a ticket for love or money as we travel around.

"There is a new set, some of the choreography has been altered and the Ballad of Billy McCaw, which had got lost somewhere along the way of the show's history, has been reinstated."

Lloyd Webber, too, is pleased the production has given him the opportunity to tighten up the original score. Ramsey is delighted to report the composer made a flying visit to the performances in Plymouth and was very happy with the result.

Mackintosh also revisited the show in Edinburgh and expressed his enthusiasm for the dynamism of the cast.

A number of members of the last London cast remain in the show.

Chrissie Hammond repeats her triumphant portrayal of Grizabella and continues to wow audiences with her rendition of the hit song, Memory.

Among the new members, Guy-Paul Ruolt De St Germain gives a performance of Mister Mistofelees that regularly brings the house down.

Ramsey says the magic of the show is undiminished by age.

The cats still mesmerise - and, occasionally, frighten (in the most harmless way), - the kids in the audience.

At the end there's a fantastic moment when a cat is transported to Heaven on a kind of floating tyre.

The tour is booking until 2006 and Ramsey expects to be with the production at least until next October.

At the moment he is spending all of his off-stage time during the show sitting in front of a fan keeping cool and protecting his make-up.

Call 01323 412000.

Preview by David Wilkins, features@theargus.co.uk