Can we talk about the music? The score is incredibly complex for a Broadway musical, changing keys with more frequency than Prokofiev on speed, and rhythmically complex in a way that drives the energetic songs hard. In addition, the words are married to the tunes with the neat cleverness of a Gilbert and Sullivan Opera. For example, in "There, Right There!" (a tongue in cheek question about a trial witness set to a polka-rhythm), one of the student lawyers observes:
"You see, they bring their boys up different
In those charming foreign ports;
They play peculiar sports
In shiney shirts and tiny shorts."
Maybe the show didn't succeed as it should have because the songs aren't neat little individual tunes like most Broadway musicals. In a very original fashion, the songs carry along the plot from scene to scene, undergoing complex musical variations along the way. For example, the song "What You Want" takes Elle from her jilted depression in her sorority room through preparing for the LSATs all the way to admission to Harvard Law, including three scene changes.
The score alone wouldn't make it a great show if it weren't also endearing, and it is. Laura Bell Bundy was brilliant in the original cast, but the score is strong enough to make a great female lead out of anyone who's got the chops to energetically sing and dance in almost every scene. (Side note: I think the best version I saw featured an African American in the role of Emmett Forest, the hard working kid who worked his way up from the bottom to become a lawyer and teaches Elle the meaning of privilege.)
Like other great shows, LBTM comes across fresh in the hands of each new director, anchored by its empowering plot and inspired score.
