Exclusive: Y&R Stars Preview B&B Crossover!

Fans of The Young & The Restless’ Danny and Christine are going to want to make sure to watch The Bold & The Beautiful on Tuesday, Aug. 13, and Wednesday, Aug. 14, when Michael Damian and Lauralee Bell appear on Y&R’s sister soap as part of Danny’s world tour! And we sat down to chat with the two stars and get the scoop on this can’t-miss crossover!

“It’s fantastic because we’ve got some awesome fans that have created online, a Danny and Cricket virtual Tour,” Damian told Soaps in Depth. “They even have our own jet airplane with the logos.”

“The funniest thing is I used to have a clothing store and Shauna Stein, who used to run it with me… after our scenes with Tracy and Alan in Paris, Brenda Grapevine, our fan, made a whole video of all the sightseeing things we saw in Paris,” Bell chuckled. “The Eiffel Tower, walking through the gardens, all that. And my old store partner says, I’m so glad you were able to experience that beautiful city. It looks like you had a great time. I didn’t want to be like, ‘No, it’s fake.’ I feel like we’re on tour as well.”

In fact, it was when Danny and Christine visited Traci in Paris on Y&R that kicked off this whole crossover idea. “That’s when Brad [Bell, B&B headwriter and executive producer] saw this and said, ‘Wait, so you guys are in Paris on tour, Well, I’m sure you’re going to play LA,’” Damian explained.

“I think he was trying to figure out a way to elevate the party that he was already going to do,” Bell added. “This made complete sense. About a week later he called me and said, “I’m trying to figure this out, but I need to talk to Michael. And then he said, ‘Okay, what about singing?’ And it’s so great he’s singing because so many of the fans just miss him performing.”

So after Danny plays the Hollywood Bowl, he and Christine are invited to a party at the Forrester mansion and he performs a number there, as well! “Danny Romalotti breaks into ‘Rock On,’” Damian enthused. “And what’s so cool is that I was actually working on the 2024 remix, a new version of it that I just finished. So when Brad Bell reached out to me about doing the song, I said, ‘Well, I have a new version and never performed before, and why don’t we do that one?’

The scenes weren’t shot like a typical soap opera, but more like a music video, including handheld camera work. And while Damian is lip-synching, there is a live element to the performance. “We wanted the Forresters and everybody at the party to actually sing and join in on the chorus,” he revealed. “And so we did a separate track… that we did clean, without the music. Because we had to hear them without the music contaminating the playback.”

“They were all so excited to do it,” Bell smiled. “I just think that when you have a day where it’s not your normal set day, you get excited.” Then she joked: “It was also their last day before their [summer] hiatus, so we can’t tell whether they were so excited to have us there or whether they were excited to start vacation.”

These episodes mark Damian’s first appearance on B&B, but Bell actually crossed over to Y&R’s sister soap back in 2007 when Christine represented Ridge in court on murder charges. So this visit was a lot more fun! “That’s what we carry over into B&B,” Bell previewed. “It’s only smiles. It’s only good times.”