SIR Andrew Lloyd Webber's long-running musical Sunset Boulevard is to close in both London and on Broadway, it was announced yesterday.

The decision will be a major shock for London's West End. By Jeeves, the revival of another musical by Sir Andrew, is also to close shortly and Tommy, Pete Townshend's 1960s rock musical, will finish on Saturday after nearly a year.

Although the Broadway production of Sunset Boulevard was reported to be running at a loss, Sir Andrew's company, the Really Useful Group, denied that ticket sales were collapsing in either city.

It said that both productions would finish only because big star replacements could not be found for either show. In London, Petula Clark has played the lead for a year and her contract ends in April. The £6 million Broadway production, starring Elaine Page, will close in March. Both casts were told on Saturday.

Sunset Boulevard, based on Billy Wilder's 1950s film about an ageing Hollywood star attempting a comeback, has been only a moderate success by Sir Andrew's standard. It opened at a cost of £3.5 million at the Adelphi Theatre in London in July 1993, and the next year it closed for two weeks while £1 million was spent on improvements.

Sir Andrew, whose peerage in the New Year's Honours List has yet to be gazetted, has become the most commercially successful composer ever.

Cats, almost 16 years old, is London's longest running musical ever, Starlight Express has run for nearly 13 years and Phantom of the Opera for 11 years.

But the Broadway opening of Sir Andrew's newest musical, Whistle Down the Wind, has been delayed for two months because the producers were not satisfied with it.

Sir Andrew was said to be relaxed about the fate of Sunset. Closely involved with the recent screen version of his musical Evita, starring Madonna, he was said to be looking to carve out fresh interests with Hollywood film deals.

Since Christmas, the Really Useful Group, 70 per cent owned by Sir Andrew, has made 18 of its 95 staff redundant. The company said that it was less busy, with fewer projects, than in 1996.