Quiet at Chuck E. Cheese’s
The pizza chain is phasing out its iconic animatronic band, seeking “a calmer, more inviting” environment, according to a spokeswoman.
One of the longest-running musical acts in show business may be over.
Chuck E. Cheese’s is phasing out its iconic animatronic band, the largerthan-life ensemble that has performed at the kidfriendly pizza chain for decades, in a bid to become more parent-friendly.
An early phase remodeling of Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurants in San Antonio and Kansas City, Mo., includes “a calmer, more inviting” environment, a focus on food and a live stage show. The animatronic band, however, seems to have lost its gig.
“We removed the animatronics in seven locations,” said Christelle Dupont, a spokeswoman for the chain based in the Dallas suburb of Irving. “We’re testing to see how those remodeled locations do and what parents and kids like and what’s resonating with them.”
Dupont said the animatronic band will be removed in successive remodels but declinedtosaywhen.
Chuck E. Cheese’s has 512 corporate-owned restaurants in the U.S. Launched as separate animatronic bands in competing pizza chains more than 40 years ago, the current Chuck E. Cheese’s lineup — known as Munch’s Make Believe Band — is the result of a 1984 merger between ShowBiz Pizza Place and Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre, which had filed for bankruptcy.
The combined restaurant chain soldiered on under the Chuck E. Cheese’s banner, while the ShowBiz band — the Rock-afire Explosion — was phased out and its performers cannibalized to keep the Chuck E. Cheese’s-led band going.
These days, an animatronic Chuck E. Cheese performs as a solo act at most locations, Dupont said.