Boston.– The musical “In the Heights,” which won four Tony Awards in 2008, is the story of the hopes and struggles of a Dominican immigrant community in Washington Heights, New York City, told through salsa, merengue, soul and hip-hop and the experiences of three generations.

According to director Thomas Kail, who also directs the national tour, which stops at The Boston Opera House on Tuesday, “People think it will be 21/2 hours of one kind of music, but the music is specific to the characters and the dance numbers continue the storytelling.”

The college production was an 80-minute one-act with 14 songs, and it evolved over six years. Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote 65 songs before finalizing the show’s 22 songs. Writer Quiara Alegría Hudes reworked the script into two-acts with three-generations of characters, and choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler created the hip-hop and Latin dance numbers.

The audience enters the world of Washington Heights through bodega owner Usnavi, who knows everyone’s story because his shop is the centerpiece of the neighborhood. He is the modern version of Tevye, the milkman at the center of “Fiddler on the Roof.”