Jeff Miers
The Buffalo News
April 30th, 2014

“Wow, man. Hertel Avenue. Whoda thunk it?” Robby Takac was goading the crowd at the North Park Theatre on Tuesday evening, but he didn’t need to. The assembled were already with Takac and his partner in the Goo Goo Dolls, John Rzeznik, from the moment the house lights dimmed.

Takac had a point, of course. Until recently, the North Park appeared poised to go the way of so many iconic Buffalo landmarks over the years – a once beloved piece of our culture gone to seed and left abandoned.

But on Tuesday, the Goo Goo Dolls threw a party, made a movie of that party, played within the Buffalo city limits for the first time since 2006, and raised money for the North Park’s ongoing renovation.

It would be impossible to view the whole thing as anything less than a raving success, on all counts.

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Jeff Miers
The Buffalo News
April 29th, 2014

Back when he was an aspiring musician trying to make it big, John Rzeznik used to make the trek from his house on the East Side to the North Park Theatre on Hertel Avenue.

“It was one of the only places in town where you could see an art film, y’know?” he said last week. “So the place means something to me.”

But when the lead singer of the Goo Goo Dolls walks inside the theater tonight, it won’t be to see a show. Tonight, he and his band will be the show.

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Jeff Miers
The Buffalo News
March 14th, 2014

The Goo Goo Dolls are coming home for a concert and they have picked one of the city’s most iconic theaters for the performance: the recently reopened North Park Theatre.

The band, led by Buffalo natives Johnny Rzeznik and Robby Takac, announced a special show at the Hertel Avenue theater for Buffalo members of their fan club, Inner Machine.

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Mark Sommer
The Buffalo News
March 7th, 2014

Under the North Park Theatre’s marquee, bursting with color, moviegoers entering the newly restored theater Friday discovered decades of dirt and grime had been replaced by sparkle and splendor.

For many, the ornamental details and artwork that had been obscured for decades in the 1920 movie palace were astonishing.

“I used to come here, and every time I’d look up at the ceiling, I figured that surely a piece of it would fall on me during the show. Now I’m looking up at its grandeur and I’m just so pleased, so happy. I thought it was a cool place anyway, but I never thought I’d see this,” said Elizabeth Reinagle, who went to the theater’s first showing with her husband, Russ.

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Jeff Simon
The Buffalo News
February 24th, 2014

Hertel Avenue is about to get its crown jewel back.

The North Park Theatre announced Monday that its much-awaited reopening will take place March 7.

And when it does, longtime observers can’t help but point out, this will not be your father’s North Park Theatre. Some significant changes are in the offing for the North Buffalo movie house, apart from the extensive renovation that some insiders are putting in the neighborhood of $250,000:

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Melinda Miller
The Buffalo News
December 28th, 2013

Searchlights raked the midnight blue winter sky over Hertel Avenue Friday night as hundreds of people streamed under the glowing marquee of the North Park Theatre for an early glimpse at the newly restored neighborhood landmark.

Squeezing in an extra celebration between Christmas and New Year’s, the Sneak Peek Fundraising Gala had the feeling of a neighborhood block party combined with a long-delayed reunion, as attendees greeted friends and gazed in delight at what a small army of restoration workers has wrought in the past six months.

“It looks beautiful, absolutely beautiful,” said Ann Wells, who grew up in North Buffalo with one of the theater’s owners, Left Bank restaurant owner Michael G. Christiano. “We always came here, since we were kids.”

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Harry Scull, Jr.
The Buffalo News
December 15th, 2013

The North Park Theatre on Hertel Avenue sports a refurbished marquee Wednesday, and there a plenty of restoration projects going on inside as the theater recently marked its 93rd birthday.

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Jeff Simon
The Buffalo News
May 23rd, 2013

The North Park Theatre on Hertel Avenue would be high on anyone’s list of North Buffalo landmarks, so when Dipson Theatres announced Thursday it would no longer be presenting films in the aging movie palace, it was feared its screen would go permanently dark.

However, Buffalo attorney Thomas J. Eoannou, who owns the building containing the theater, said he is partnering with Left Bank Restaurant owner Michael G. Christiano to keep the North Park open.

“It’s going to remain an art theater,” said Eoannou. “It would be an awful shame to mothball it. It’s just a beautiful, beautiful place.”

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