Successful candidate for primate holds stage key (9)
I believe the answer is:
appointee
'successful candidate' is the definition.
'appointee' can be an answer for 'candidate' (thesaurus). I am not sure about the 'successful' bit.
'primate holds stage key' is the wordplay.
'primate' becomes 'ape' (large primate).
'holds' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'stage' becomes 'point' (synonyms).
'key' becomes 'E' (musical key).
'ape' going around 'point' is 'appointe'.
'appointe'+'e'='APPOINTEE'
'for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for appointee that I've seen before include "Job-holder" , "One put into post" , "One assigned to a post" , "One assigned to a job or role" , "The person given the job" .)