A MUSICAL about forgotten stage legend Pat Kirkwood, who lived in Wensleydale, received glowing reviews after its premiere this month at Manchester and will be staged in London early next year and on Broadway in 2014.

Pat Kirkwood is Angry, written by mezzo soprano Jessica Walker as a vehicle for herself, dramatises the life of a stage and screen star whose career was blighted by rumours of an alleged relationship with the Duke of Edinburgh, causing the lingering and bitter feelings that gave rise to the show’s title.

Miss Kirkwood was haunted for almost 60 years over allegations she had breakfast with Prince Philip in 1948 after a night dancing together when both were 27 and the Queen was eight months’ pregnant with Prince Charles.

Extracts from letters between the prince and Miss Kirkwood feature in the musical. Though she admitted dancing and breakfasting with him, she always emphatically denied any suggestion of an affair.

Miss Kirkwood created leading roles in West End musicals by Cole Porter, Noël Coward and Leonard Bernstein and was the first woman to have her own series on BBC television.

Though once a household name, famous for songs such as Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, the scandal is believed to have cost her chance of recognition in the Honours list.

She lived with her husband at West Burton, where she was hounded by journalists, and died in 2007 at the age of 86. In 1993, she wrote to Prince Philip complaining that with some support “the matter could have been squashed years ago instead of [me] having to battle a sea of sharks single-handed”.

Prince Philip replied: “Short of starting libel proceedings, there is absolutely nothing to be done. After nearly 40 years of such treatment, I am more or less hardened to this sort of thing.”

The play tells of her fury with Buckingham Palace for not protecting her from the scandal.

Miss Walker, who created the one-woman show in conjunction with Opera North, said: “The inescapable fact is Miss Kirkwood’s meeting with the Queen’s husband, which was not sought by herself, actually ruined her life and robbed her of official recognition for an outstanding career.”