Hamilton, Miranda was a theater student at Wesleyan University. He began writing what would become In the Heights in 1999, first as a one-act before evolving into a full-fledged show with a massive cast and an embrace of the hip-hop storytelling that would become Miranda’s stock in trade. The story revolves Usnavi de la Vega — a Dominican bodega owner in Manhattan on the verge of closing his store — and friends and neighbors he comes to see as his own family. Incorporating salsa, soul, hip hop and other musical influences, the show is ultimately a musical celebration of love and family amid New York’s Latinx diaspora and the personal conflicts that reside therein.