BOCA RATON, Fla.
Not much rattles the 73-year-old entrepreneur who has worked in real estate, industrial window cleaning, the salvage business, costume business and now theatrical production.
For 40 years, Wick has owned Costume World, which boasts the nation's largest collection of Broadway wardrobes. In 2013, she began operating the Wick Theatre and Costume Museum. Her business, with its nonprofit theatrical division, employs 125 people.
"She's a miracle worker. She has taken a white elephant and turned it into a fabulous community theater for Boca Raton and for Palm Beach County," said Yvonne Boice-Zucaro, a Boca Raton business owner and philanthropist. She sits with Wick on the board of the county's tourism agency, Discover The Palm Beaches.
In 2013, the building housing the theater faced foreclosure. Costume World leased the building, finally buying it in April of last year for $5.2 million.
Wick saw a perfect opportunity for the community and Costume World. She needed more space for her growing costume collection — why not buy the theater?
"I love to take bad deals and make them good," Wick said. "You get strong if you have all kinds of experiences in business."
Now the theater is in its fifth season, with 3,700 subscribers. Wick expects to have 5,000 subscribers by next season. She has expanded with the costume museum and the Tavern at the Wick restaurant, modeled after Manhattan's Tavern on the Green.
"Between the museum and the Tavern, they're starting to stand on their own," Wick said.
Jan McArt, a longtime actress, director and producer of theater in Boca Raton, said "nothing would surprise me about Marilynn — she's exceedingly capable and ambitious, in a nice way. Her idea of having the costume museum and the theater is wonderful. She has done a beautiful job of both," said McArt, who once ran a theater in Boca Raton.
Wick has personally invested $1.5 million in the theater. She took out a $5 million Small Business Administration-backed loan to renovate and add the costume museum and a restaurant.
While not yet profitable, the 341-seat theater is making progress — the building has since been appraised at $8 million, Wick said.
Costume World may be known to consumers as a place to buy or rent a Halloween or party costume, but the business makes its real money by renting costumes to theaters around the country. Costume World can provide, for example, all 245 costumes needed for the musical "42nd Street." That's why theater managers fly into South Florida from across the country to choose costumes for their upcoming seasons.
"That's a specialty we have, and that's why the business is so successful," she said. "You only have a few ways of surviving. One is if you're a specialty, niche business. And the other is if you take your products and go with the times."