Corona has a property called graphics.newGradient(), which will be useful for coloring/filling your rectangle with suitable color gradient.
-- First create the rectangle --
local myRectangle = display.newRect( 0, 0, 200, 200 )
-- Then create the gradient method --
local g = graphics.newGradient(
{ 255, 255, 255 }, -- This is the first color array
{ 200, 200, 200 }, -- This is the second color array
"down" ) --[[ This is the gradient direction.
Default is "down"
Others are "up","right" and "left". --]]
-- Now fill your rectangle with the created gradient as: --
myRectangle:setFillColor( g )