Casa Bonita has always been a place where cliff divers, sopapillas and surreal decor collide — the Pink Palace that makes you feel like you wandered into a pastel fever dream.
But this year the menu added a new course: labor drama with a side of haunted merchandising.
The controversy kicked off after the restaurant’s roaming characters — the folks who bring Black Bart, the Sheriff and other living attractions to life — voted to unionize with Actors’ Equity (and also sought representation from IATSE).
In September, Actors’ Equity told the world management had cut several key roles — “Black Bart, Captain Isabella, Amazon Ani and the Sheriff” — and called the move an “illegal” and “retaliatory” tactic timed to the first contract negotiation.
The union filed an Unfair Labor Practice with the NLRB. Translation: what looked like a cost-cutting Halloween switch smelled, to performers, like labor-law trouble.
Shortly after, Matt Stone — co-owner along with Trey Parker — spoke to The Denver Post to pour a little balm over the boil.
Stone said the characters weren’t gone forever, just temporarily benched to make room for October’s “Casa BOOnita” festivities.
“It would be confusing for patrons,” Stone told the paper. “So we decided to do something different, right? And this is going to be something that goes on with Casa Bonita from now on. We always want it to be an evolving canvas of performers and patrons.”
In his telling, it was seasonal theater direction, not retaliation.
Then a performer named Joshua Emerson — who plays a gorilla — took the mic in Westword and told a different story.
Emerson praised the “Pink Palace,” writing that Casa Bonita has “brought joy and created that magic for 51 years, building relationships over multiple generations.” But he blasted management’s moves as more than tone-deaf theater programming.
Emerson’s line was stark and legalistic: “They broke the law when they did it.” He explained that the entertainment cast had voted twice — both times unanimously — to have Actors’ Equity represent them, and that “management is required by federal law to bargain with Equity over making changes to working conditions during ongoing contract negotiations.”
Emerson describes chaos: two weeks’ notice to performers that their characters would be cut for October, frantic searches for income replacement, and coworkers “breaking down and crying.”
Several performers were reportedly compelled to resign after the “careless removal” of roles.
The emotional fallout is easy to imagine: characters are the job, and the job disappearing overnight is not just a pay cut — it’s a loss of identity (and obviously a loss of those sopapilla-themed tips).
Adding fuel to the fire, Casa Bonita encouraged patrons to costume as the same roaming characters for Casa BOOnita.
Performers called that move “insulting and downright dangerous,” pointing out policies major theme parks use for good reason.
One worker warned about the obvious downside: “Can’t wait for a kid to meet some drunk adult three margaritas deep dressed as ‘Black Bart.’” That’s not just PR trouble; it’s a liability problem waiting to happen.
Stone even hinted the seasonal reshuffle could be repeated during the holidays — unless, he joked, he and Parker get visited by three ghosts.
Whether that’s gallows humor or a preview of a year-round “evolving canvas,” performers and unions are reading it through a different lens: one where bargaining rights matter and sudden role cuts don’t.
Where this goes next is partly procedural.
Actors’ Equity and the NLRB process can take time, and the law around bargaining obligations during active negotiations is specific — which is Emerson’s point.
The union’s claim is that management’s last-minute role cuts changed working conditions during bargaining, a red line in labor law parlance.
Casa Bonita’s management counters with seasonal programming reasons and assurances the characters aren’t permanently retired.
For patrons who love the chaos of cliff divers and costumed characters, the best-case scenario is simple: management and performers make peace, the characters return to their stages, and nobody’s left performing as a very tipsy Black Bart in the parking lot.
For the performers, the stakes are livelihood and dignity.
For the rest of us, it’s theater and politics in one very pink package — equal parts absurd and serious.
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