This is true. However, if the author was attemting to make a point of that sort, he failed miserably.
At the average Sunday Mass, people tend to put on a broadway show instead of a Holy Mass.
I've never seen that. Our youth group did scenes from "Fiddler on the Roof" at Father Hawker's anniversary party, though. A couple of the kids were theater big-shots at their high school.
Seriously, I can’t tell you amount of parishes we hit during the summer while traveling around camping, where the “Cantor” and his production team have huge solos for every song.
Arm waving and “feeling it”. It looks silly and with so much interpretation that no one in the congregation could sing along if they tried. There isn’t meant to be participation, they are meant to be solos.
Last year, we went to a parish in the thumb region of MI where they had a little “ding” at the end of each refrain of the “Lamb of God” (which they embellished with “Prince of Peace” deviating from the GIRM). Truly, it sounded like we got the answer right on a gameshow! Then in FL, we went to a huge parish that dimmed the lights and threw a follow spot on the Priest for the consecration.
Broadway all the way!