Billy Elliot Musical Canceled Over Turning Boys Gay

Billy Elliot Musical that was scheduled for 15 performances has been canceled by Hungarian National Opera officials following a homophobic right-wing extremist media campaign pushing the debunked narrative that the award-winning Broadway musical some how turns young boys gay.

LGBT politics are front and center over this incident as the ‘Billy Elliot Musical’ has been constantly attacked by right-wing populist publication Magyar Idok newspaper who also is well known for its puppet support of right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

‘Billy Elliot Musical’ is a musical based on the 2000 film Billy Elliot. The music is by Elton John, and the book and lyrics are by Lee Hall, who wrote the film’s screenplay. The plot revolves around Billy, a British motherless boy who trades boxing gloves for ballet shoes. The story of his personal struggle and fulfillment are balanced against a counter-story of family and community strife caused by the 1984–85 UK miners’ strike in County Durham, in North Eastern England. Hall’s screenplay was inspired in part by A. J. Cronin’s 1935 novel about a miners’ strike, The Stars Look Down, to which the musical’s opening song pays homage.

The musical premiered at the Victoria Palace Theater in London’s West End in 2005 and was nominated for nine Laurence Olivier Awards, winning four, including Best New Musical. The production ran through April 2016. Its success led to productions in Australia, on Broadway and elsewhere. In New York, it won ten Tony Awards and ten Drama Desk Awards, including, in each case, Best Musical. It has also won numerous awards in Australia including a record-tying seven Helpmann Awards.

In an article on Magyar Idok newspaper posted on June 1, they said “the propagation of homosexuality cannot be a national goal when the population is getting older and smaller and our country is threatened by invasion”. It went on to describe those involved in organizing the musical with a homophobic slur, implying that they were seeking to turn young members of the audience into homosexuals.’

Needless to say this is a disappointment but understandable as you never know if one of these right-wing extremist groups plan on assaulting cast members or patrons of the performances while protesting outside the venue.

Article by: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer