The kindergartners in the crowd at “She Persisted, The Musical” are unlikely to get the reference in the title, but then again they were toddlers at the time.

In 2017, when the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, shut down a speech by Elizabeth Warren on the Senate floor, he explained himself with words that feminists have flung back at him ever since: “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”

Chelsea Clinton quickly responded with a children’s book, “She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World” — a cheerful, affirming collection of mini-biographies for little ones. But is it really the stuff of theater?

Indeed it is. “She Persisted, The Musical,” by Adam Tobin (script and lyrics) and Deborah Wicks La Puma (music), is an exuberant, time-traveling history lesson that instills confidence, too, encouraging girls to listen to their own voices and not be afraid of using them.