Last night at '2001' turned out to be as fine an evening as one could have hoped. Keir Dullea introduced the film, and sat for autographs and photos afterward. As I'd already heard, he's extremely personable, and very supportive of the film being seen by the widest possible audience. And trust me, a few of them were pretty wide.
(pause for polite laughter)
The presentation was very good for the theater's first showing (I flatter myself to think I was probably the only one in that audience to detect a couple of flaws which I hope they'll iron out for the remainder of the run), and I don't think I've known any present day '2001' audience to be as wrapped up in the film as this one. There were only a couple of hundred people in attendance, so not nearly a full house, but through it you could hear a pin drop, with no fidgeting or anything unseemly going on. There was reaction in just a couple of the right places, and most of them stayed to get a signed photo or have their picture taken with Dullea. (Which by the way wasn't free; it's all like "cons" nowadays, they don't give it away.)
Most importantly, friend Kristi - who had never seen the film in a theater and therefore had literally never cared about it in spite of very much liking other Kubrick films - LOVED everything about the movie. It was a revelation, which - better late than never, has SOLD her on seeing things the way they were meant to be seen.