Twenty-two years have passed since choreographer Patricia Birch put Candide through its paces for director Hal Prince. Now, the two will reteam in the spring to take it from the top again, cranking it up for a Broadway run that will begin April 29 and be followed by six-month tour across North America. In the interim, Birch took up directing as well--not only on screen (Grease 2) but also on stage. Sunday marked the close of The Snow Queen, a musical by Adrian Mitchell and Richard Paslee which she directed-choreographed at the New York State Institute in Troy. It being a coproduction with a London theatre, she plans to reprise the whole thing in London sometime in the fall.

Producer Scott Rudin has been using her choreographic skills of late. She staged the exuberant dance finale that Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler did in The First Wives Club. Next she'll work up something for Kevin Kline to do in the new Rudin before the camera, Paul Rudnick's In and Out.

After that, she takes off for Toronto to direct and choreograph a brand-new, '30s musical comedy set at the end of the Prohibition age. Then, she'll return to "the best of all possible worlds" and start rehearsing Candide March 10.