|
Rick Knight is a self-taught keyboardist and composer, born in Tampa. He
grew up listening to pop music from The Beatles to Barbra Streisand and began playing
piano by ear at age 10 emulating the styles of Carole King, Steely Dan and the Carpenters.
He performed in local bands and plays through his teens and twenties. The Rainbow Room is
loosely based on experiences Rick had as a moonlighting cabaret singer in Southern
California during the late eighties.
In 1996, he took a five month sabbatical, during which the play and the first four
musical numbers came to fruition. All fourteen songs on the CD were composed, arranged,
and performed by Rick with guest vocalists Tom Ochoa (Chaz) and Robin Minnerly (Sonia). In the realm of musical theater, he most admires the work of Alan Menken, and Stephen
Sondheim and their collaborators. Choosing a semi-autobiographical backdrop for his first
play, Rick attempts to convey life passages and to bring the personal feelings of what it
means to be gay to a place where they can be observed and understood. |
