For at least one cranky television critic*, an assignment to review "Glee! Live! In Concert!" would inspire bratty foot-stomping and bitter mumbles about playing hooky.
But for long-time Chicago Sun-Times television critic Paige Wiser, it inspired a trip to the unemployment line.
Wiser was fired Thursday after her review of a Chicago-area performance in Sunday's paper mentioned one song that didn't appear in the set and included another that she didn't stick around to see.
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According to Time Out Chicago, she got "busted after a reader alerted editors to her review" of the performance, at which the Fox song-based sitcom's many cast members, including Lea Michele and Chris Colfer, perform in character. Her published review, which was removed from the site after her dismissal, reported that an encore cover of Rebecca Black's "Friday" was "irresistible" and "infused … with joy." But she had left the building by then.
In an interview with Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune after her firing, Wiser attributed the gaffe to the normal exhaustion that goes with being a mother of young children. With the approval of her editor, she had brought along her 6-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter. Somewhat predictably, considering their ages, chaos ensued. The boy fell off his seat during the show and the girl vomited repeatedly into a cotton-candy bag. Wiser departed after 13 songs, but before the encore.
"I'm at fault," she admitted to Rosenthal. "I do understand what a big deal this was. I am ashamed and it's just a matter of making bad decisions when you're exhausted."
"Glee! Live! In Concert!" may be swinging through your neck of the woods. If forced to attend and sickly sweet covers of popular songs aren't your thing, you might want to bring along a few cotton-candy bags.