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36s - Def is first word; wordplay is 4+letter word for star (,or celeb) inside 4+letter musical based -, loosely - on Puccini' *La boheme"
16d is an Afrikaans word for ,'strapping" using anagram of "miser"

Re 37a, for what needs to replace the festival's beginning, think of the NATO alphabet.

I should have said that in 36a the celeb turns, ie is reversed.

Thanks, will37 -- NATO alphabet solves the hotel mystery, and a bit more searching showed me that East London is a place in South Africa, which I did not previously know and which explains that clue nicely. I still don't see why the musical, which I know well and know what Puccini opera it was loosely based on, is "set about now", or why those three words are even in the clue as it would seem to work just fine without them: that was my real question about that clue.

I'm sorry, mooncow, but I can't help. My copy and solution went to recycling on Tuesday. Perhps if you included at least the clue number or perhaps the wording ...

36a Left star turns in musical set about now (8)

I turned a star/celeb inside a musical to get a word meaning left. I didn't know what the words "set about now" were contributing to the clue though. The musical was written in the 1990s, and very much set in the 90s, loosely based on La Boheme a century before. "Left star turns in musical" would have seemed to clue the answer quite satisfactorily.