Jennifer Laura Thompson (born December 5, 1969) is an American actress and singer. 　　Thompson made her Broadway debut in 1998 as Ariel Moore in the original cast of Footloose. She also originated the role of Hope Cladwell in both the off-Broadway and Broadway productions of Urinetown. She received a Tony Award nomination for the 2002 Best Leading Actress in a Musical category for her performance as Hope in Urinetown; the award went to Sutton Foster for her performance in Thoroughly Modern Millie. 　　Thompson is also well known for being the first replacement actress for the role of Glinda in the Broadway hit musical Wicked at the Gershwin Theatre. Her first performance replacing Kristin Chenoweth was on July 20, 2004 and continued in the role for over ten months. During her run as Glinda, she performed opposite Idina Menzel and Shoshana Bean as Elphaba. She departed the company on May 29, 2005. She was replaced by Megan Hilty, who had served as her standby. Thompson would later return to the theatre on October 27, 2008, to take part in a one-off performance titled "The Yellow Brick Road Not Taken", a presentation of rough scenes and songs cut from early drafts of Wicked.