Superstar revisited

It's that time of year, I guess. Maggi had also attended a production of Jesus Christ Superstar (as the guest of another menacing High Priest) and has blogged about it here, while Dave of The Grace Pages also has something to say.... Last night was the final performance of the school show, and I volunteered to help with the bar to get another chance to experience it. This time it was even more powerful. Apparently the guy playing Jesus (remember the whole cast is aged 15-18) was so engaged by it that he wouldn't go to the greenroom in the interval, but chose to remain quiet backstage. Luci was asked by one or two at the pub afterwards how she'd found it from a Christian perspective, and there was some surprise when she said that her mum the curate had thought the whole thing was great...
I'm wondering what is going on here. Is the assumption that anyone involved in "church" will be uncomfortable with the human Jesus? That our raision d'etre is to keep God safely in the boxes we've built for him? How did we get to that place, when our task as ministers is surely to facilitate encounters between people and God? The total silence that accompanied Jesus' death on the cross was of the same order of concentration that is occasionally reached during the Eucharist, and I didn't feel as if I was the only person there consciously praying into it. Not sure that consciousness is an essential part of the deal in any case. God reaches out and touches people when they don't even think they are looking for him....and uses whatever is at hand.