Waissman's first Broadway credit was the 1971 Paul Zindel play And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little with Estelle Parsons and Julie Harris. The following year, while he and partner Maxine Fox were in Chicago, they attended Grease, a popular local play about high school life in the 1950s being performed at the Kingston Mines Theater in the Old Town section of the city. The two thought it would work better as a musical and encouraged its writers, Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, to relocate to New York City and embellish it with a score.
Waissman's initial Broadway credit was the 1971 Paul Zindel play And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little, starring Estelle Parsons and Julie Harris. The following year, while he and partner Maxine Fox were in Chicago, they attended Grease, a popular local production about high school life in the 1950s at the Kingston Mines Theater, where they thought it would be more effective as a musical and encouraged its writers, Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, to move to New York City and enhance it with music.