Everyman No. 3298 (Dec. 13th)

I am here as a substitute for the regular blogger. The crossword posed no difficulty but I am unable to explain Clue 16d fully. Season’s Greetings to all readers.

Across

 1          MARITIME – MAME (musical) around R (river) IT (Italian), I (one) – For me this was easy to solve but difficult to explain as the title of the musical was not known to me. I learn that ‘Mame’ is a musical written by Jerry Herman that premiered on Broadway in 1966.
5           BAROLO – BAR (bar) O (round) LO (‘East End’ of Oslo) – Word was new to me but could be easily derived from wordplay.     
9           LAND’ S END – LAND (bag) SEND (despatch)
10         FLEECE – double definition – Charge exorbitantly / wool
12         CHEAP – E (Ecstasy) in CHAP (fellow)
13         YARDSTICK – YARD (reversal of DRAY (cart)) STICK (criticism)
14         ELEPHANT SEAL – ELEPHANT (anagram of ‘The plane’, ‘flying’ being the AInd SEAL (close up) – Excellent surface reading
18         AS OFTEN AS NOT – Anagram of ‘Feasts at noon’
21         PHENOMENA – Double container/contained – PA going round  NO. (small number) in HE-MEN (macho types)      
23         TRIER – Double definition – German city / judge    
24         BARLEY –  Homophone of “Bali” – In India speakers don’t keep the r in ‘barley’ unpronounced
25         USURIOUS – Cryptic definition with allusion to some grasping moneylenders    
26         YES MEN – S (Sheikh’s head) in YEMEN (Red Sea republic)   
27         EMISSARY – MISS (girl) in EARY (anagram of ‘year’), disrupted being the AInd 

Down

1          MALICE – M (male) ALICE (girl)
2          RANGER – R (third of fires) ANGER (rage)
3          TEST PILOT – Anagram of ‘to let Spit’
4          MONEY-SPINNER – MONEY (brass) SPINNER (top)
6          ATLAS – deleting the last letter from AT LAS(t) (finally)
7          ONE-LINER – ON (about) E (English) LINER (ship)
8          OVERKILL – OVER (concerning) KILL (quarry)
11         FRIARS BALSAM – Cryptic definition, ‘order’ here taken to mean a monastic order. I must have come across this phrase before in crosswords. Chambers defines it as “a tincture of benzoin, storax, tolu and aloes used as an inhalant”. 
15         TOOK TURNS – TOOK (booked as in “I took a room in X hotel”) TURNS (acts)
16         TAMPA BAY – This is in Florida. Help needed in understanding the rest of the clue.
17         FOIE GRAS – anagram of ‘fair goes’ –  Surface reading is OK but the words ‘got from’ have no role in wordplay.
19         MIMOSA – Anagram of ‘Ammo is’
20         BRASSY – BRAS (supporters) SY (extremely ‘stroppy’, that is the first and the last letter of the word) – The word ‘stroppy’ is new to me though I know “obstreperous”
22         OBESE – OBEs (honours) E (European)