School Pictures NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (22)
See it if Care about educational system in NYC, or 13 y/o ppl. Heart pricker & sewer, that’s what Milo is. His angle is so unique, and tender.
Don't see it if His singing is not the best, but fitting for the form, and full of sincerity. It’s 70 min of “private tutoring”, with a unique style. Read more
See it if You are open to a one man show about the challenges of our education system
Don't see it if You don’t like one person shows or need great singing/music Read more
See it if quirky and poignant solo musical about students in a tutors life.
Don't see it if While it is a musical the singing isn't great. But I'm a purposeful way Read more
See it if interested in issues of education. Cramer uses song, humor and storytelling to explore issues of inequity in NYC school system.
Don't see it if hate 1 person shows. Not at all interested in education or are part of the elite and don't want to see how unfair the system is.
See it if Milo Cramer is devilishly endearing in this solo show re his career as a tutor to gifted middle schoolers preparing for elite HSs Wondrous!!
Don't see it if It takes some time to get its sea legs but by the time Cramer reaches the "Big Reveal" he has us totally in his theatrical powers First-rate
See it if You want to be entertained for an hour
Don't see it if You have no interest in schools or one man shows.
See it if You like things that that are unique and performers who lean into “their voice “.
Don't see it if You want a traditional play or don’t like quirky. Read more
See it if You like shows that approach storytelling in a non traditional/non linear way. Or interested in the educational system in NY.
Don't see it if You don't like quirky, you don't like folk-ish music. Read more
Critic Reviews (6)
“...in a little over an hour, it unfolds into an extraordinary meditation on teaching, learning, what we’re learning through institutional structures as much as through literal instruction”
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“Milo Cramer is snagging the audience’s attention at Playwrights Horizons in ‘School Pictures’, a song cycle of 10 numbers, each pertaining to a youngster under Cramer’s tutoring...These intimate tutor-child interactions underpin the show’s critiques of the classist and racist education system that burdens children with inequities.”
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“Your reaction to Alexandra Tatarsky’s ‘Sad Boys in Harpy Land’ is likely to be less warm-fuzzy and more head-scratchy. The 80-minute show is about the creative process... and it’s a clown show!”
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“Cramer is a personable performer with an unruly shock of hair and a wicked glint in his eye, both of which contradict his supremely mild manner. He's a talented performer and a writer of wit but the excessively cutesy quality of the early passages is supremely counterproductive. If he put down the uke and simply spoke to us, School Pictures -- a piece that ultimately becomes captivating -- might be a knockout.”
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“it's fun at first, but 70 minutes is a long time to sustain this sort of gambit, and by the end you wish he'd spoken more and sung less. He's a pleasant presence, and if you've ever taught or tutored, you'll probably empathize strongly with Cramer and his feeling of helplessness in a very damaged system. For the rest of us, it's a moderately revealing glimpse into unfamiliar territory.”
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Each of the story songs are poignant as well as hilarious as these young people deal with adolescent problems, the world around them and their parents’ unreal expectations. Cramer is always charming and amiable as they use varied voices to make each student sound different. The lyrics are inventive and unusual, each song in a different form. Smoothly directed by Morgan Green, "School Pictures" is that rare one-person show: satisfying and original as well as honest in revealing child psychology as well as a teacher’s perspective.
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