I have experienced that when on the options screen, unless you are hovering over a button, the menu does not trigger. (I usually press 'O' next to the text that says Hit 'O' For more options.)
It might be OS related, since LWJGL uses natives:
I use a Chromebook with dschneid/crouton
Google Chrome: 40.0.2214.93 (Official Build)
Revision: c675f6a38876b473472b2581b549e6fa72caa11f
Platform: 6457.83.0 (Official Build) stable-channel parrot
Linux Version: 14.04 Trusty Tahr
And if it makes a difference to you:
GL Version: Mesa 3.0

Issue should be fixed in the 1.8 version. You can click on that region to enter the options menu as well in that version (I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner)