Mike Paarlberg is on the cover this week with his close examination of the Washington Ballet’s current production of The Nutcracker, which contains exactly zero live musicians. He’s also got a review—-guess why the production suffers?

Kriston Capps leads the arts section with a look at Penny Starr, the pseudo-journalist who ignited the current controversy over a removed artwork at the Smithsonian. Leor Galil profiles D.C. emo revivalists Monument. Film critic Tricia Olszewski reviews two works of fiction that contain a grain or so of truth: I Love You Phillip Morris and All Good Things. In theater, Chris Klimek fact-checks, and also reviews, Mojo at Studio 2ndStage, while Trey Graham has a good time at Wife Swappers at DCAC. Mike Kuntz reviews the latest album by Ryan Adams. And for One Track Mind, Sadie Dingfelder talks to the band Lejeune on the occasion of it no longer being a band.