Jeanine Tesori and Dick Scanlan, the composing team behind the Broadway musical Thoroughly Modern Millie, will work together again, the lyricist told Playbill On-Line at the May 15 Tony nominees luncheon.

As for the name of their next project, however, Scanlan is circumspect. "I can't say yet, because there are underlying rights," he explained. "It's based on something so obscure that even if I told you what it was, the odds that you would know it are slim. We're looking at it to see it we want to make a long commitment, if it's the next thing we want to work on together."

It would be "very different than Millie," he added.

Thoroughly Modern Millie is Scanlan's first major theatre credit. He and Tesori were nominated for a Tony Award for Best Score, while Scanlan picked up a second nomination for Best Book (shared with Richard Morris).

"I found a best friend and a great collaborator," Scanlan said of Tesori. "I would love to work with Jeanine anytime, on anything. We work unbelievably well together, the same work ethic. In some other life we were brother and sister. We're just incredibly compatible." Scanlan said that before the two could collaborate again, Tesori had to concentrate on Caroline or Change, the musical she is writing with Tony Kushner.

—By Robert Simonson