Rick Knight, born in Tampa, Florida, is a self-taught keyboard musician and a natural composer. By age five, he was already memorizing Beatles songs, performing them a cappella for his classmates throughout grade school. By the age of 12, he was the “kitchen floor” star in his family, singing duets with his mother's 8-track tapes of Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick and Richard Harris. At the same time, he began learning piano and was soon playing by ear, emulating the styles of emerging popular acts of the time: Carole King, Elton John, Billy Joel and The Carpenters.

In his teens, he found his rock and roll side and performed in local bands, playing through his twenties in nightclubs in Northern California. Then came the gospel music phase where his church congregation became the first audience to hear his original songs. “The kindest audience is the one who knows you're doing it for a higher purpose,” remarks Rick. He still regards those early songs as some of his most melodic and thoughtful work.

It wasn't until the late 90s that original music began literally and quite spontaneously coming forth. The song that opens Act II of The Rainbow Room, “That's the Man for Me,” was completely composed in his head, lyrics and music, while stuck in rush hour traffic. Realizing something unusual was happening, he took a five month sabbatical from the business world, during which The Rainbow Room began to emerge. Rick recalls, “I remember me and a good friend dishing over drinks and then realizing this was good stuff! We started wildly writing our quips down on cocktail napkins.”

In the realm of musical theater, he most admires the work of Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz, Kander & Ebb, Bacharach & David, Jerry Herman and Stephen Sondheim. “I find it extraordinary how much human potential is so carefully nestled in the words and music of the composers for the theater,” Rick observes.

Choosing a semi-autobiographical backdrop for his first play, Rick attempts to convey life passages and to bring the personal feelings of how it felt to be gay for the first two “out” generations since the sexual revolution of the 60s.
Rick moved to New York in 2006 where he continues to work on scripts for stage and screen. Currently, Rick is working to put The Rainbow Room on the New York stage.

It is Rick's desire to create dramatic works of impeccable and memorable quality, providing a full spectrum of audience appeal. The final result will be unique theater and film projects that resonate in the hearts of our culture, creating new understanding, affinity and healing within families and communities.

About the Play

The Rainbow Room is a musical about two gay men from the two generations since the sexual revolution of the 60s, each with completely different perspectives on “life, liberty and the pursuit of fabulous.” It’s a look into what it’s like to be gay revealed through the perspectives of a fortysomething lounge singer (Robert), working in a small piano bar and a coming-of-age, hedonistic pretty boy (Chaz). Chaz has recently come to enjoy the special attention of the bar’s owner, Harry.

Robert believes he is "over the hill" with chances of love and success all but gone. Still, he has found security in a long-term gig working in the safe, small beach town of Gulf Breeze on the Florida panhandle. Convinced his ship has long sailed, his melancholy comes out in his choice of pining and poignant love songs. Yet, it is those brief moments in the spotlight at the small bar, bombastically called “The Rainbow Room”, that give Robert a sense of belonging and imbues his life with meaning.

Enter Chaz, who is in his prime: buff, handsome, opinionated, flippant, and opportunistically looking for the next amusement. He's got his mind set on turning the sleepy piano lounge into a high-energy karaoke hot spot. Though they get off to a rocky beginning and are complete opposites, the two men soon find common ground and playful distraction in their dishy yet philosophical conversations and ultimately learn about themselves from the unlikely friendship that emerges between them.

Sonia, the bar’s rather pregnant cocktail waitress, has fled in shame from her native Puerto Rico and is secretly coming to terms that she is attracted to women. She provides her own unique insights on the economics and social barriers of being a young woman of color and her situation also provides an indicting critique of a modern society that doesn't provide for its most needy.

Harry, the bar's owner has a growing contempt for both Sonia and Robert as charity cases that are keeping his business down. Chaz is close by as the “devil on his shoulder” trying to position himself as the bar's new main attraction. But it soon dawns on Chaz that he's unleashed Pandora's Box by upsetting the long-standing status quo and his cavalier attitude ushers in harsh consequences.

As the play climaxes, Robert wakes up to discover the vast possibilities in life just as free-wheeling Chaz realizes he may have spun the wheel of chance too many times. The reality of their changing lives provides a personal, dramatic focus juxtaposed against their light-hearted, whimsical notions on spirituality, sexuality, politics,and personal identity.

The play includes fourteen original songs spanning a wide range of popular music styles, many with strong pop music hooks suitable for air play and coverage by other pop artists. Book and songs by Rick Knight.