Goodspeed Musicals is making musical comedy addicts an offer they can't refuse.

On Monday Nov. 25, for $75 a person, Goodspeed will bus theatregoers from midtown Manhattan to Connecticut (and back, of course) to see both of Goodspeed's current attractions, the musicals The Baker's Wife and King of Hearts.

It doesn't take a math whiz to figure out that the two-show excursion to the Tony Award-honored Goodspeed Opera House and its sister venue, the Norma Terris Theatre, will cost less than the full-price of a single Broadway show.

Between the matinee and evening shows in Connecticut, theatregoers are left to their own devices in quaint Chester, CT, to browse shops and dine in restaurants.

The offer is being called Goodspeed's New York Express and is designed to build audiences beyond the Connecticut River region. The current musicals at Goodspeed are linked by their French setting and their foreign-film roots: Stephen Schwartz and Joseph Stein's The Baker's Wife is based on a Marcel Pagnol picture about a village baker whose wife leaves him (but not before singing the memorable "Meadowlark," impacting the villagers; King of Hearts is based on the 1966 picture about a World War I soldier who encounters a unique French village, abandoned by all but the local insane asylum residents.

Both shows have been revised since their initial productions, and both have cult followings. Christiane Noll stars as the baker's wife.

The bus departs the street outside Sardi's in the Broadway theatre district at 10 AM Nov. 25. For more information, or reservations, call (860) 873-8668 or visit www.goodspeed.org.

— By Kenneth Jones