In a Broadway career spanning five decades, Wasser and his company, Alan Wasser Associates, general-managed three of the most successful productions of all-time: Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon. His longtime collaboration with Cameron Mackintosh, producer of all three musicals, revolutionized the way shows were produced and managed both on Broadway and on tour across North America. Wasser received an honorary Tony Award in 2017. Three Broadway theaters significant in Wasser's career—The Majestic, The Marquis and The St. James—will dimmed their lights in his honor.
A native of Portland, Oregon, Wasser earned his bachelor's degree from Columbia University, majoring in music composition and orchestration, and got his start in the professional theater at Circle in the Square—first as a subscription manager and later as assistant managing director. After years of gaining experience on the road with touring productions, Wasser was appointed general manager of productions for The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1985. It was during his tenure there that Wasser began his long, enormously successful professional relationship with Mackintosh, starting with the United States premiere of Les Misérables in December 1986 at the Kennedy Center Opera House, prior to its March 1987 Broadway debut.
Alan Wasser Associates general-managed all of Cameron Mackintosh's Broadway and U.S. touring productions, including Les Misérables (Broadway and three touring productions), The Phantom of the Opera (Broadway and three touring productions), Miss Saigon (Broadway and two touring productions), Five Guys Named Moe, Swan Lake, Putting It Together, Martin Guerre and Oklahoma! Other shows managed by Alan Wasser Associates include Seussical, Sweet Smell of Success and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Wasser was lead producer of the musical Lysistrata Jones in 2011.
In 2012, with three general managers he had worked with and mentored—Allan Williams, Aaron Lustbader and Mark Shacket—Wasser formed Foresight Theatrical, which continues today as one of Broadway’s leading management companies. He retired from Foresight in 2016. Wasser was a longtime member of the Executive Committee of the League of American Theatres and Producers (now called The Broadway League), and also served on the board of Playwrights Horizons. He was also an amateur composer and in 1996 released a CD, Music from Laurel Hill.
Wasser is survived by two sisters Rosalie Quinn (Paul) of Bellevue, Washington and Carolyn Ikuta of Yorba Linda, California and nine nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents Rosemary and Earl Wasser and brother Edward Wasser of Seattle, Washington.
