Benjamin and O'Keefe collaborated on a number of original musicals which ran
Off-Broadway, including
The Mice (2000), an adaptation of
Sarah, Plain and Tall (2002), and
Cam Jansen And The Curse Of The Emerald Elephant (2004), based on the
Cam Jansen mystery series.
The Mice was turned into a musical with three short parts, titled
3three, which was produced at the
Prince Music Theater, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2000 and at the Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles in 2001. Benjamin and O'Keefe's first
Broadway production was
Legally Blonde: The Musical, for which they created the music and lyrics.
Legally Blonde premiered on Broadway in April 2007, ran for 595 performances and 30 previews, and closed in October 2008. Benjamin and O'Keefe were nominated for a
Tony Award for
Best Original Score.
Legally Blonde: The Musical opened in January 2010 on London's
West End at the
Savoy Theatre, ran for two and a half years, and won three
Olivier Awards, including Best New Musical, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. Benjamin's first full-length play,
The Explorers Club, premiered Off-Broadway in 2013. A
farce about a woman trying to gain entry to an elite club of explorers in 19th century Britain, it won the
Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play. Reviewers largely praised Benjamin's skills as a comedic writer. She wrote the lyrics to
Mean Girls, the stage adaptation of the 2004
film of the same name, with
Jeff Richmond composing the music and
Tina Fey writing the book.
Mean Girls premiered on Broadway in April 2018. She was again nominated for the Tony Award for
Best Original Score (alongside Richmond). She wrote the lyrics to the musical
Dave, based on the
1993 American political comedy film of the same name and co-wrote the book with
Thomas Meehan. It was produced at the
Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. in July 2018. She wrote the book and lyrics for the musical
Because of Winn Dixie, which is based on the
novel by
Kate DiCamillo. The music is composed by
Duncan Sheik. The musical ran at the
Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Connecticut, from July 2019 to September 2019 after being produced in December 2013 at the
Arkansas Repertory Theatre, February 2015 at Delaware Theatre Company and January 2017 at the
Alabama Shakespeare Festival. She has been tapped to write the book and lyrics for
Come Fall in Love - The DDLJ Musical, which is premiering at the Old Globe fall 2022 in preparation for a Broadway run. In July 2025, The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego announced the world premiere of a
Renaissance Fair-themed musical called
Huzzah!, written and composed by Benjamin and Laurence O'Keefe, which premiered on September 13, 2025. ==Personal life==