Group with 1951 hit Tell Me Why / TUE 11-23-10 / Broadway singer/actress Verdon / Upscale London district / Indy quick-change artists

Constructor: Richard Chisholm

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: POKER HAND (65A: What the answer to each starred clue is) — POKER HANDs are clued in punny / wacky ways ... actually, no, one is clued that way, the others are clued literally, just not in reference to POKER ...


Word of the Day: MAYFAIR (38D: Upscale London district) —

Mayfair is an area of central London, England, within the City of Westminster. // Mayfair is named after the annual fortnight-long May Fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today (from 1686 until it was banned in that location in 1764). Until 1686, the May Fair was held in Haymarket, and after 1764, it moved to Fair Field in Bow because the well-to-do residents of the area felt the fair 'lowered the tone' of the neighbourhood. [...] The district is now mainly commercial, with many offices in converted houses and new buildings, including major corporate headquarters, a concentration of hedge funds,real estate businesses and many different embassy offices, namely the U.S.'s large office taking up all the west side of of Grosvenor Square. Rents are among the highest in London and the world. There remains a substantial quantity of residential property as well as some exclusive shopping and London's largest concentration of luxury hotels and many restaurants. Buildings in Mayfair include the United States embassy in Grosvenor Square, the Royal Academy of Arts, The Handel House Museum, the Grosvenor House Hotel, Claridge's and The Dorchester. // The renown and prestige of Mayfair has grown in the popular mind due to its designation as the most expensive property on the British Monopoly set. (wikipedia)

• • •

Write-up will be delayed 'til late morning, EST. Feel free to comment on the puzzle now, if you like.

~RP

OK, I'm back from early a.m. appt. No time to write last night, no time to write this a.m., hence the (highly unusual) delay. I didn't really have much (nice) to say about this puzzle anyway, so no real loss (to you, to me, to the world at large). HOW ELSE? (18D: "Do you have a better idea?") bugged me so much that I sort of gave up on the puzzle halfway through. Fill is generally ordinary to trite. Never heard of the FOUR ACES, so that was weird. SMEARY is (as commenters have said) less than desirable. IRED always sucks. I always admire dense themes, esp. with intersecting theme answers, but did Not like the clue on ROYAL FLUSH (*Sound from a palace bathroom?) — they should all be punny or all not be punny. The other clues are simply literal, so ... boo. Best part about the puzzle is bonus theme answer "IT'S A DEAL" (56A: "Agreed!").

Theme answers:

• 17A: *What SRO indicates (FULL HOUSE)
  
• 27A: *The Magi, e.g. (THREE KINGS)
  
• 50A: *Sound from a palace bathroom? (ROYAL FLUSH)
  
• 10D: *Group with the 1951 hit "Tell Me Why," with "The" (FOUR ACES)
  
• 40D: *Makeup of a double date (TWO PAIRS)
  

See you tomorrow,

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]