The Old Globe in Balboa Park is doing its every other year or so assist to Broadway by debuting a show here that will eventually hit the Big Apple. Recent San Diego to New York bounces have included “The Full Monty” and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” both of which went on to be big hits on the Great White Way. I saw and loved both shows in their early renditions at the Globe.

San Diego’s latest preview is “A Catered Affair,” currently playing at the Globe through Oct. 28 (although I’ve heard it will be extended). With a book by Harvey Fierstein — based on the 1956 movie by the same name that starred Bette Davis — and proven stage actors such as Faith Prince and Tom Wopat, “A Catered Affair” caused me to eagerly take my red-upholstered seat Sunday night with high expectations.

But I left the theater not feeling as I did about “Monty” or “Scoundrels,” two shows I felt confident would be popular. Nor did I leave humming a tune, unusual for the post-musical glow.

Instead, my companion and I agreed we were enveloped in melancholy. The plot, which centers around Prince as a mother who wants to provide her daughter a lavish wedding (a catered affair, so to speak) as a salve for her own wife wounds, is not necessarily a downer. It does make you think twice about what true love really means. But it does it in such a way that when the last number ended, the audience wasn’t sure if the play was over.

Again, really unusual for a musical.

Add to that what I assume is purposefully forgettable music — the actors sort of sing-talk — and “A Catered Affair” ends up a mixed bag for theatergoers. I’m not so sure how the Spamalot/Jersey Boys/Wicked crowds who flock to Broadway will feel about this one. I suppose if they can allow themselves to stretch a bit as far as the definition of “musical” goes, they could like it.

But what I’m guessing will happen is it will be a huge critical success and a lukewarm audience success. After all, people will go to see Fierstein, who wrote himself into the plot. I think they will be sorely disappointed in this role, though, as opposed to his more appropriate “Hairspray” or “Torch Song Trilogy” stints. Fierstein’s “confirmed bachelor” in “Affair” seems pushed and unnecessary, even if he does provide much of the show’s needed comic relief.

As if you can’t tell, I’m torn on this one. I really want to recommend it because I think Prince and Wopat are marvelous, if underused, and the theme is at least meaningful. But I just don’t think it achieves its goal.

So we’ll watch and wait for next spring, when the East Coast gets its invitation to “A Catered Affair.”