The 88th Post-Gazette ShowPlane flies off to Broadway, Nov. 19-23. The four shows scheduled include a great American drama and three musicals -- an American classic, an American adaptation of a classic English novel and a new London hit.

• "Billy Elliot," a 2005 London musical by Elton John and Lee Hall, based on the 2000 movie about the young son of an embattled coal-mining family in the age of Thatcher who aspires to enter the Royal Ballet School. A truly English musical with grit, humor, dreams and politics.

• "South Pacific" by Rodgers and Hammerstein, the glorious, mold-breaking postwar musical in its hit Lincoln Center revival, strong in both robust comedy and lyrical romance, starring Kelli O'Hara and Brazilian opera star Paulo Szot.

• "A Tale of Two Cities," newly adapted and musicalized by Jill Santoriello. An epic musical with a company of 38 and told in the expansive style of "Les Miserables," except that this time the revolution is the big one.

• "All My Sons" by Arthur Miller, a drama of compromised ideals and family crisis, starring John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest, with Patrick Wilson as their son and Katie Holmes making her Broadway debut, directed by Simon McBurney of the famous Complicite theater.

We travel by air from Pittsburgh and motorcoach into the city to stay at the Millennium Broadway Hotel on the east side of Times Square. Included along with travel, hotel, transfers, baggage handling and four theater tickets are an initial welcoming dinner and a coffee discussion of Broadway with longtime PG theater critic Christopher Rawson, who accompanies the tour.

Optional extras include an in-depth tour of an interesting corner of New York, complete with lunch, and a farewell dinner at a favorite Broadway eaterie.

Conducting the tour are experienced tour guides from Gulliver's Travels, who also provide further travel consulting and ideas for more sightseeing and dining to fill your ample free time in the Big Apple.

The basic tour price is $2,369 per person based on two people sharing a double room. The single supplement is $962. A deposit of $500 per person is required to hold your reservation; status of your request will be sent upon receipt of deposit and completed reservation form.

Deposits are to be made payable and mailed to Gulliver's Travels, 460 S. Graham St., Pittsburgh, 15232-1210.

For more information, call 412-441-3131 or, outside Pittsburgh, 1-800-848-4084.