Why did SUNSET BOULEVARD fail?

You might be gilding the lily when you call it "a masterpiece".

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I'd have to agree with the above sentiments. Entirely. Hardly a masterpiece. I've never once yearned to hear it again.

Was Close (whom I love, btw) a big enough name to make a difference?

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You answered your own question. Only the creatives and fans would think of it as a masterpiece.

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I was lucky enough to see Glenn Close play the part. It is a memory I'll cherish forever. She was absolutely mesmerizing, terrifying and wonderfully vulnerable all at once - I imagine her performance elevated the character and piece in a way that other actresses could not. I imagine she was a box office draw as well. From a purely artistic aspect, I don't think anyone could act that role the way she could.

I saw Glenn Close and she was remarkable -- perhaps only Meryl Streep could have done what she did with the part. I saw it again with Elaine Paige who did an entirely different take on the role, she actually played the comedy (this character is a freak show after all) and her make-up and mannerisms actually resembled Gloria Swanson in the film (which was a very brave thing to do).

When Glenn Close was in it, it sold out, but she was getting a huge salary, PLUS a percentage of the box office. When Buckley (and later Paige) replaced her, the weekly running cost went down, but so did the box office. The show was too dependent on star power. Big difference from Les Miz, Phantom, Miss Saigon, etc, where no one really cared who was playing the lead roles.

I saw an extremely mediocre borderline bad local production. Without the big set and floating house, it is a collosal bore to sit through. The book and score do not work when taken out of the context of a multi-million dollar set.

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Only a few theater queens in NYC were upset by Patti LuPone's firing. Most people were excited by the casting of Glenn Close.

The movie is a masterpiece; the musical is a mediocrity.

Others have said it, but I will echo it.

I saw the show in its out-of-town Los Angeles engagement, which ended up being the Broadway cast (after a much-publicized mess).

The show wasn't that strong. It had an over-the-top set, which was the most memorable thing about it. Truly jaw-dropping when the entire mansion interior lifted off the ground to reveal a secondary location underneath it.

Glenn Close was a big movie star and many people were curious to see if she could sing. Her singing was fine, her acting was not. That was a real surprise for me, since I expected the opposite. She was way too crazy from the beginning, leaving her very little room to take the character on a journey into madness. Her final scene on the staircase was nothing short of Grand Kabuki, so stylized it didn't even fit with "musical theatre" reality, let alone reality. "More" was not "more," in this case. It was less effective, in the end.

Still, when they announced Glenn was going to head the NY cast (and in fact, the whole cast was heading for NY, with one or two exceptions), they also announced that Faye Dunnaway would be her replacement. Faye had been a major movie star in her day, but she wasn't a box office draw (by any means) during Sunset Boulevard. The result? Ticket sales fell way off, almost immediately, for any dates after Glenn's departure.

The show was basically a "star vehicle," but not for just any star. It had to be someone the public wanted to see, because the show itself just wasn't good enough or compelling enough to bring in the crowds to see it.

Ultimately, Webber shut the Los Angeles production down when the cast moved to NY.

You had a mediocre show, with a massively impressive and expensive set, and a big star who was fine in the part, but not remotely brilliant by any means. When she left, the show struggled. Then it limped along until it closed.

Fade to black.

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The behind the scenes drama was more interesting than the onstage drama.

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"As If We Never Said Goodbye" is one of my favorite moments in any musical, but agree that the musical as a whole could have a big rework too. I believe there was one of those actor-playing-instruments revivals in London, that similarly, did not run as long as expected because missed the grandiose of the original.