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Nearly completed. I have the theme words and most of the variations but can’t work out 5D ( singer dressed surreally in bloomers ) even though I feel it should be an easy clue to parse. Haven’t worked out exactly what wiglag wants written below. Presumably not the word that I have got from the puzzle title.

Thanks Malone, It's half time right now.
The redundant words aren't really necessary to get the thematic entries and variations grid entries as you can guess nearly all of them once you get a near-complete grid.

I agree about guessing "nearly all". Foolishly I was looking for the guy's first name as well. All that's holding me up now is Var A1 and the 6 letters from the redundant words, I have 5 - in 16, 35, 37, 9 and 13D, but the sixth eludes me.

cockie, I have 20, 35, 37, 10, 13, 34.

The name is the creator of Theme word A and variants

Nelson, I thought 14 rather than 20, but I agree with everything else

One of the drawbacks of redundant words is that there are redundant words in normal clues. 9, for instance, has the E-word which is wholly unnecessary for the wordplay, and is there only for the surface. Similarly the P-word in 16, and there are probably others. I accept that writing smooth surfaces is important, but if the setter is using the redundant word gimmick in only a few clues, as here, I think it's a pity that there are redundant redundant words in what is otherwise a good solid puzzle. (And I learned a lot I didn't know about Royal Blood too.)

I thought it was 14 for ages - but it doesn't fit the name.

And when I looked up the answer anyway, there was no redundant word. (I thought it was 'Artistic'.)

But whereas C is $100 in Chambers, M is merely million. No bucks.

Yes, no need for bucks that I can think of. As you said, there are quite a few clues that have redundant words.
I only worked out the first letter was in 20 once I had worked out the name of the creator