Broadway veteran takes helm for Music Theatre Wichita’s ‘Crazy For You’

When Brian J. Marcum wanted to stage one of his favorite musicals, “Crazy for You,” the Music Theatre Wichita artistic director found someone who had years of experience with the title.

Angelique Ilo spent four years in the ensemble of the 1992 Tony Award-winning best musical, which also nabbed a trophy for its director, Susan Stroman. Since then, she’s been involved in at least a half-dozen productions of the musical, including as associate director/choreographer for a Stroman-directed/choreographed revival on London’s West End in 2023-2024.

“I think there are only a certain handful of people who know the material as well as Angelique does,” said Marcum, whose first Broadway show he attended was “Crazy” after moving to New York. “She has such a great history, and part of our mission is to educate these young ensemble people and get them to know people when they move to New York. I thought, what better way than just to go as close to the horse’s mouth, Susan Stroman, as possible and get her associate.”

Ilo, who is directing and choreographing the show, brought Naomi Kakuk and Angie Schworer, fellow Stroman associates, to Wichita as associate choreographer and associate director, respectively. Schworer, whom Marcum called “Broadway royalty,” is also playing Irene in “Crazy,” the fiancée of the leading man, Bobby Child. Schworer also originated the role of Angie in “The Prom” on Broadway and was the longest-running Ulla in “The Producers” on Broadway.

Marcum said the MTW resident ensemble, musical theater students from colleges across the country, not only get to interact with creatives with Broadway credits, it boosts their resumes and gives them a connection when they go into professional theater.

“The resident ensemble is kind of our golden ticket,” he said. “To be able to bring in people like Angelique and her creative teams here, and all of these (performers) get to meet these people and work with them and get an idea of why a life in the theater is important.”

Ilo had spent what she calls a “damn long time” in “A Chorus Line” on Broadway when she auditioned for “Crazy for You,” eventually becoming a part of the ensemble and dance captain.

“My job was to learn everything,” Ilo said of being dance captain, whose duties include onboarding new cast members to the choreography. “Now it’s sort of in my DNA, not just in my bones. It’s a love affair that I never expected to be in my life.”

Ilo still keeps contact with Stroman, a director known for “The Producers,” “Contact” and “Big Fish,” and has been texting her friend pictures and videos from the MTW rehearsals.

“It’s getting more peripheral knowledge to people about Music Theatre Wichita,” Marcum said.

Ilo said the MTW version of the show was unique in her resume because she did not cast the performers, and has only a nine-day rehearsal process, compared to the five weeks she had in London.

“Crazy for You” has a unique Broadway history. It’s loosely based on the George and Ira Gershwin 1930 movie musical “Girl Crazy,” but its book was rewritten by Ken Ludwig (“Lend Me a Tenor,” “Moon Over Buffalo”) for Broadway. It includes Gershwin classics such as “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “Shall We Dance”,” “Embraceable You,” “I Got Rhythm” and “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.”

Subsequent versions of the script have been updated to reflect the times.

“Some of the dialogue is a bit misogynistic to this day,” Ilo said. “When I do it now, I feel like it’s freshly updated. The pace is a little quicker and it’s updated in its humor.”

Ilo said she likes the 1990s-21st century sensibilities that go with the 1930s tunes.

“Our show is revisiting history, and it has many elements to it, but it’s a fun and funny show. It seems like an old-fashioned show, but it’s none of the above,” she said. “I always thought it was a show of boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl, you know, like so many of the old musicals back in their heyday. But there’s another angle to it that deepens it for me.”

Ilo also brought with her Taylor Aronson, a Florida actress who played the lead female role of Polly Baker for her a year ago at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine.

“Polly is a leading woman ingenue from the era of the 1930s, ‘40s, the musical comedy,” Aaronson said. “She’s rough around the edges and gets to be funny too. It’s written in the all the styles of these classic shows, but it has current sensibilities.”

Aaronson it was easy to pick up the role where she left off.

“It’s all the muscle memory, but I see it once and it’s in my body,” she said.

Her highlight of the show is an eight-minute musical number, with seven minutes of choreography, to “Shall We Dance?” with Bobby Child, the leading man.

“You get to see a relationship evolve,” she said. “It’s a lot of work and exhaustive and nuanced.”

Bobby Child, the banker who wants to be a performer, is played by Daniel Beeman, an Omaha actor who was part of the MTW resident ensemble in 2013.

“I love that this allows you to play a more comedic side,” he said. “As I’ve been telling people, it uses every tool in my toolkit. Everything I’ve learned in this industry kind of culminates with this role.”

Before returning to Wichita, Beeman spent two days with Ilo, learning the complex choreography.

“It challenges me and stretches me in every which way,” he said of the role. “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and also the most rewarding and the most joyful, for sure.”

In 2010, the last time MTW staged “Crazy for You,” the role of Bobby Child was played by David Elder, who returns to the cast, this time as producer Bela Zangler.

“It’s awesome to be able to keep coming back and playing different characters, and especially in this one show, to be able to play, 15 years later, ‘the old guy,’” he said. “I’m excited to be able to play the character part.”

Elder, who played the role of Bobby one other time, said it’s one of his favorite parts.

“Not only do you get to sing and dance and act, but you get the chance to be funny, which a lot of leading men don’t get to do,” he said. “It kind of rounds out the package and makes it a completely rewarding experience.”

Another holdover from the 2010 production is music director Thomas W. Douglas, leading a 23-player orchestra.

“It’s a really big, full orchestra,” Douglas said. “Nobody does that. Even on Broadway they get it down to 13 or 16. It’s hard to find producers that will really want you have the full compliment.”

“The Wichita audiences have come to accept that that’s the standard, and it’s really not,” he said. “The Gershwin harmonies are so great, and the colorful sounds from the orchestra are so great.”

“Sometimes I think it sounds better here than it does in New York,” Marcum added.

‘CRAZY FOR YOU’ BY MUSIC THEATRE WICHITA

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Friday, July 9-10; 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, July 11-12; 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, July 12-13; and 7 p.m. Sunday, July 13

Where: Century II concert hall, 225 W. Douglas

Tickets: $25-$94, from mtwichita.org, 316-265-3107 or at the Century II box office

This story was originally published July 6, 2025 at 6:22 AM.