Billy Elliot musical axes dates in Hungary amid claims it could 'turn children gay’

The Hungarian State Opera House has cancelled 15 performances of the musical Billy Elliot after ticket sales were hit by a media campaign in outlets close to Viktor Orbán’s “illiberal” government that called the show a propaganda tool for homosexuality.

“As you know, the negative campaign in recent weeks against the Billy Elliot production led to a big drop in ticket sales, and for this reason we are cancelling 15 performances in line with the decision of our management,” the director-general of the opera house, Szilveszter Ókovács, told the independent Hungarian website 444.hu.

The musical is based on the 2000 film of the same name, which tells the eponymous story of a boy growing up in a depressed northern English mining town in the 1980s who eschews boxing to pursue his passion for ballet.

An op-ed in Magyar Idők newspaper on 1 June says the story “could turn children gay”. The article also suggests the musical promotes a “deviant way of life” that goes against the demographics needs of the country.

“The propagation of homosexuality cannot be a national goal when the population is getting older and smaller and our country is threatened by invasion.”

The article suggests that if Ókovács could not remove certain scenes from the production, it should be pulled altogether.

Writing in Magyar Idők, Ókovács argued that “showing something which is an indisputable fact of life does not mean you are propagating it. One can be gay and conservative at the same time.”

He also noted that the only gay character from the original script was not included in the Hungarian production.

The Hungarian State Opera House has performed Billy Elliot 90 times to more than 100,000 people since 2016, but ticket prices for the remaining performances have since been halved.

Emboldened by his third consecutive election victory in April, Orbán has doubled down on his plan to make Hungary an “illiberal state” by moving against judicial independence and non-governmental organisations.

He has also increased pressure on independent institutions including the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Central European University. Another rightwing paper with close links to Orbán, the Figyelő, published a list of researchers at the 200-year-old academy this week, accusing them of working on “gay rights and gender science”.

Hungary’s parliament passed a series of laws this week that criminalise any individual or group that offers to help an illegal immigrant claim asylum.

The legislation restricts the ability of NGOs to act in asylum cases and was passed in defiance of the EU and human rights groups.

Under the Stop Soros law, individuals or groups that help illegal migrants gain status to stay in Hungary will be liable to prison terms.

The Fidesz party’s re-election landslide followed a campaign attacking the US billionaire George Soros and the liberal NGOs he supports. Orbán believes Soros has encouraged mass immigration in order to undermine Europe.

The author of the Magyar Idők article, Zsófia N Horváth, declined to respond to the Guardian’s questions about the piece.