If the idea of our nation’s forefathers belting out show tunes from behind their desks at Independence Hall appalls you, this isn’t the musical for you. But if notions of singing and dancing delegates, accompanied by a casually crooning Thomas Jefferson and tuneful Ben Franklin don’t turn you off, then a night out to “1776” at Ford’s Theatre is just the ticket.

Though it debuted on a Broadway stage over 40 years ago, “1776” has aged rather well, with roughly a dozen songs from Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone’s weighty script, which contains one of the longest scenes written without a note of music in the history of musical theatre. And for a show that concerns itself exclusively with the inner workings of the Second Continental Congress and more specifically, with the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, it has the odd capacity to be extraordinarily entertaining.