REVIEWS
Given the style of the show, a happy ending is never really in doubt and the message about self-acceptance is fairly standard. Even so, Weinberger and Falcone have done an excellent job of making you care about the show’s plucky heroine, and empathize with her plight. Moreover, Falcone’s tuneful score delivers one terrific song after another, from the bouncy title tune, to the hip-hop number “Operation Shutdown,” to the Latin-flavored “Diva Latina,” and the Broadway-style anthem, “A Face Like Mine.”
TheaterMania .com
Weinberger’s book and Falcone’s lyrics … wisely balance the humor with an earnestness that makes Wanda’s World a refreshing change of pace from the overly self-aware and cynical musicals of recent years.
Speaking of Broadway, Wanda’s World is rather long for a one-act; it would take only a modest expansion to turn it into a two-act fit for the Broadway stage. It has all the ingredients. The spoken scenes – written by Eric H. Weinberger, who cooked up the story with Ms. Falcone – are just long enough to advance the plot and give us needed breathers between the highly energized musical numbers…
Theater Review NY
The music itself relies on kicked-up but fluid modern rock arrangements of a fairly small number of easy-to-grasp themes. It’s not easy to write and arrange music that seems to effortlessly balance simplicity and fun with originality and musical literacy. Ms. Falcone has done so.
“Wanda’s World” is, refreshingly, not based on a movie but devised from an original story by composer-lyricist Beth Falcone and librettist Eric H. Weinberger. Falcone’s score is cheerful and inventive, filled with jokes for the tweens and wit for the adults. Weinberger matches Falcone with good-natured humor spread across the proceedings…
Variety
…Wanda’s World coasts along quite nicely on the strength of some bright jokes, a peppy score… Weinberger has an eye for the way kids (mis)treat each other (Wanda’s nickname quickly becomes Blotches) without getting preachy about it, and, in Wanda, he has created an uncommonly appealing character. Beth Falcone’s music has an interesting way of working a slight dissonance into the kickiest pop tune, and her lyrics are surprisingly clever…
L&S Online America
Aimed at “the tween in all of us,” the brash, sparkling new musical Wanda’s World lives up to its billing splendidly. Director-choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett fashions Beth Falcone’s rock and pop-inspired tunes into a series of colorful song-and-dance numbers that tug the ear, delight the eye, and yank you through the story in spite of yourself.
BLOG CRITICS REVIEW NYC
A number called “She’s So Last Week” exemplifies the show’s cleverness, as the popular girls quiz Wanda … putting on a friendly front, cheerleader Jenny Hightower … undercuts the newcomer with every other line. Meanwhile, football star and straight-A heartthrob Ty Belvedere … is running for class president. In his number “What’s Not to Like?” he extols his own perfect virtues while allowing a peek at the good heart inside.
The show, too, has a catchy score by Beth Falcone with pop-rock melodies and smart lyrics, … and book by Eric H. Weinberger with an uplifting tutorial: Be yourself and don’t get bogged down by your supposed negative qualities.
BACKSTAGE.COM
Eric H. Weinberger’s touching and energetic tween musical, Wanda’s World is far deeper than its colorful sets and smiling pigtailed characters would have you believe. Beth Falcone composed a clever score with contagious tunes that appeal to adults and tweens alike. Songs such as the malicious lunch room taunt, “She’s So Last Week,” speaks to common tween anxieties while “No One Can Know” pokes fun at their inability to keep a secret for more than ten seconds.
Offoff Online