"No day but today!"

If I hear that phrase by one more mainstream I-only-like-"Rent"-because-I've-seen-the-movie poser, I am going to scream.

As a longtime musical theater enthusiast, I can say that the recent trend of Broadway musicals traveling to the big screen is bittersweet.

For one, I have to be fair and acknowledge that the exposure of musical theater to mainstream audiences does, in fact, elicit a wider appreciation for the genre, and therefore, is valuable to the theater community in general.

However, musical-movie watchers, know this: seeing the movie does not mean you know anything about the show. Or that you are entitled to say, "Like, oh my god, I looove ‘Hairspray!'"

When I do hear those proclamations, I need to work on the urge that bubbles up inside my fists.

"Chicago" was the first Broadway-to-Tinseltown movie I remember seeing. And you know what? I loved it.

But I had already seen it onstage. In New York. And owned the CD. I appreciated the theater art first, and cinematic art second.

A stream of musical movies followed its success: "Phantom of the Opera," "Rent," "Hairspray," the soon-to-hit-theaters "Mamma Mia," and many more.

You'd think the posing would be enough - but I have another complaint.

When musicals go to the main screen, they pull some big stars with them into the spotlight - big movie stars.

And the problem? What about those hard-working individuals who live paycheck-to-paycheck waiting tables to live out their passion for theater?

What about even those famous Broadway stars, such as Sutton Foster, who own the original Broadway casts of multiple productions and ultimately create their characters? (In Foster's case, "Thoroughly Modern Millie," "Little Women," and "The Drowsy Chaperone" all hung onto her for dear life.)

Whether a no-name actor trying to make it to the top, or a famous stage-star like Foster, why aren't these people getting the opportunity to trade up mediums to the screen?

I'm sorry, but Richard Gere in tap shoes and Emmy Rossum moving her lips to a computer-generated high note does not do musical theater justice.

"Rent" is, of course, an exception - and done extremely well, in my opinion. Most of the leads came straight from the original cast, including SOTA graduate Taye Diggs, Idina Menzel, Adam Paschal, Anthony Rapp, and Jesse L. Martin.

But it kills me when actors are taught how to sing for musical movies. That's why they have musical-theater performers - people who can act, sing, and dance, and do it in one shot, not 100!

Maybe my frustrations will go unheard. Or maybe, just maybe, movie producers will take a feather from the hat of "Rent" and cast real performers in musical theater roles.

Then again, Meryl Streep is playing the lead in "Mamma Mia."

Oh, well.