Michael Damian‘s Danny Romalotti is about to see more screen time on The Young and the Restless, 45 years after making his debut in Genoa City.
Danny has taken control of the trendy nightclub The Shadow Room, where he’ll perform “All I Need is You,” from Damian’s new album, Mixed Emotions, on Tuesday, August 18. The gig gives Danny a reason to put down roots in Genoa City — something Damian is particularly excited about.
“I think it’s pretty awesome,” he enthuses. “They’re always coming up with new and inventive ways to make it work organically. Danny doesn’t want to spend all his time on tour, away from his wife Cricket [Blair, Lauralee Bell], who is the DA. He wants to spend more time in town, so he’s going to have to do something fun. He has to write music, so it would be great to have a place to do that, and he loves people, so he’s getting involved with The Shadow Room.”
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The recently built set made a big impression on Damian. “Shadow Room is a really great thing,” he raves. “It’s almost like a Hard Rock Cafe but cooler. It has that nostalgic feel to it. I remember coming into that set for the first time and doing a scene, and I was like, ‘Wait a minute, there’s old Danny Romalotti albums on the wall.’ It was pretty funny.”
Of course, Danny has a long history of performing on Y&R, but Damian says his latest musical turn is a much more intimate affair than the concerts the character used to give. “This is more of an impromptu thing,” he previews of the episode. “It’s not the full-scale concert; it’s more where I’m working on music and saying, ‘Hey, I want to play you something.’ We going to start with something smaller and get the whole Shadow Room thing going, and then I’m sure down the road we’ll have something super exciting with a larger scale.”
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While The Shadow Room gives Danny a new reason to stick around Genoa City, Damian’s own connection to the soap stretches back nearly half a century. The longevity of his Y&R run, which began on June 24, 1981, still surprises him, especially since his initial stint was only supposed to last through the summer. “When I first came on, it was only going to be for three months,” Damian recalls. “The summer came to a close, and they said, ‘Oh, hey, do you wanna sign a five-year contract?’ I was like, ‘Wow, OK, yeah, sounds great. Let’s do it.’ I wasn’t expecting 45 years, the longest summer ever.”
Despite all those decades, Damian says the passage of time hasn’t necessarily sunk in. “It feels like yesterday,” he marvels. “It’s so strange. It feels very fresh. It’s hard to describe. It’s like being with your family for 45 years. You go, ‘Well, it’s my family.’ It’s a good feeling being with the cast and crew I’ve known for so long. It just feels good to make a long story even longer.”
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When Damian looks back at those early years, however, his first thought isn’t necessarily the storylines. “It was a lot of tall hair,” he muses. “Bill [Bell, co-creator] was right when he kept saying to me, ‘Aren’t you gonna get a haircut?’ But it’s fun to watch the evolution and the clothing. Sometimes I’ll see a clip on social media, and it’ll be, ‘Oh, that’s when Miami Vice was influencing fashion,’ because all of a sudden, I’m wearing a teal jacket with the white linen pants. But we had so many different adventures and incredible stories with important messaging, from saying no to drugs to teen pregnancy to save the Earth. It’s incredible, the journey that Bill Bell created. What a legacy. And to be a part of that is a pretty awesome feeling.”
Though fashions may have changed dramatically, one of the most enduring elements of Danny’s story has been his relationship with Cricket. “The Danny and Cricket journey was so magical,” Damian reflects. “And then breaking apart for a long time and coming back together again is quite an epic love story. And Lauralee is just amazing. She’s kind and incredibly humble, and I just can’t ask for a better castmate or coworker. It’s been amazing. And the fact that she could actually put up with me for that long is really extraordinary [Laughs].”
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Beyond the romance itself, Damian also cherishes the lighter, more grounded quality Danny and Cricket have brought to the canvas. “If you look back at a lot of the old stuff that we did, it was a lot of fun,” he points out. “It was a lot of playful moments and keeping a really awesome energy. You had the heavy dramatic stories, so it was really fun to have the balance of me with the apron making pasta, or family all coming together. You had the drama and the danger, but I like how Danny and Cricket’s story has always been grounded in reality.”
Looking ahead, Damian would love to see more of Danny’s family dynamic explored. “I watched a couple of old episodes where we had Gina [Roma, Patty Weaver] making those family dinners, and they’re really fabulous,” he notes. “I think it’d be great to do some of those with Daniel [Romalotti, Michael Graziadei] and Lucy [Romalotti, Lily Brooks O’Briant] and maybe have Gina come in, and Nina [Webster, Tricia Cast], and we could all have dinner together. Those moments are really, I think, what audiences like. I personally like those kinds of moments — I call them Moonstruck moments.”
For now, Damian is simply grateful that he can continue to balance Danny’s continued presence in Genoa City with the many other projects he has in the works. “I’m able to do the show and stay creative, write music, make albums, make movies, and continue to stay in Genoa City as much as I can,” he concludes. “It’s an awesome feeling.”
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