A Kentucky Fried musical production is in the works

The life and times of Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Harland Sanders could become the subject of a regular local musical production in the near future.
Lexington resident Bo List said Sanders, perhaps Kentucky’s most famous citizen, has a story worthy of a preserving in a musical production he is calling, in a proposal, “A Finger Lickin’ Musical.”
After a string of commercial failures, Sanders started what would become one of the world’s largest restaurant empires. He was 65-years-old at the time.
“I was just driving one day and I was hungry and headed toward a KFC and it just occurred to me that Col. Sanders is the most famous person who ever lived in Kentucky. I think everyone in the world knows who he is,” List said. “I didn’t know anything about him other than he was real and he was from Corbin. After some research, I found out this man had a fantastic life story.”
List said his study of Sanders turned up interesting fodder for a musical, beyond his late-in-life success, including his two marriages, the invention of his persona as “The Colonel,” and his testimony before Congress regarding the subject of a mandatory retirement age. But it’s that drive to succeed in his golden years that makes Sanders endearing to many.
“He was a fun, cantankerous person,” List said. “He was involved in gunfights and fistfights and every possible kind of human confrontation. But what impresses me most is that he tried and failed, and tried and failed and he came to a point in his life, at age 65, when most people are settling down to retire and enjoy their older years, but he wasn’t done.”
“A Finger Lickin’ Musical” would likely have two acts, the first about Sanders as a boy growing up and all his attempted careers. The second would focus on Sanders later in his life. Main characters would include Sanders, his wives, children and business associates, including former Kentucky Gov. John Y. Brown.
List said he would prefer the play run regularly, most weeknights, at an appropriate outdoor venue. He compared the idea to that of “The Stephen Foster Story,” a wildly successful outdoor musical drama that has been in production for decades in Bardstown.
“Stephen Foster was only in Kentucky for a weekend,” List said. “He just happened to write a song about it and someone made a musical out of it. Colonel Sanders was a Kentucky native and played a big role in the history of this area.”
List will make his proposal to the Corbin Tourism and Convention Commission next Monday. He said he’s hoping for support and, perhaps, a financial commitment to produce the project. He said an outdoor amphitheater dedicated to the production, at least during the summer months, would be ideal. He said other communities with similar productions attract tens of thousands of visitors annually and pump millions of dollars into the local economy.
“There’s no use spending six months to a year writing a musical no one wants to put on,” List said. “If Corbin is excited about this, they will hopefully go through the motions of making this happen one way or another. I’m not looking to get rich off of it … I just think it’s a fun story that I’d like to take part in.”
List said writing the script would likely take eight months to a year. He said he would collaborate with Christopher Tolliver, a music composer in Lexington.
Betty Comer, a member of the Corbin Tourism and Convention Commission and the Fine Arts Association of Southeastern Kentucky, said she supports the idea and thinks projects in and around Corbin will help compliment the musical.
“When we get that new convention center and a new golf course and Cumberland Falls and other things, I think the climate would be right for this,” she said. “I’d like to see if there are grants available for this type of thing. There’s just so much going on in Corbin. I think we could benefit from this.”