I. The primary aim of this phase I study is to evaluate the safety of multi-drug chemotherapy (with the addition of an anti-epidermal growth factor receptor [EGFR] agent erlotinib [erlotinib hydrochloride]) and concomitant radiotherapy followed by resection and consolidative erlotinib for the treatment of locally advanced esophageal cancer as judged by the dose limiting toxicities. Correlative endpoints include an analysis of pre-treatment tumor cyclin D1 expression and EGFR expression/amplification.