Jennifer Laura Thompson (born December 5, 1969)[1] is an American actress and singer, best known for her theatrical performances. She originated the role of Cynthia Murphy in the Tony Award-winning musical, Dear Evan Hansen, and received a Tony Award nomination for her performance as Hope Cladwell in Urinetown. She is also known for being the first replacement for Kristen Chenoweth as Glinda in Wicked on Broadway.
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.[2] During her run as Glinda, she performed opposite Idina Menzel and Shoshana Bean as Elphaba. She departed the company on May 29, 2005.[3] 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.[4]
On December 17, 2010, it was announced that she would be featured in the premiere of the musical version of the film Little Miss Sunshine at the La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla, California.[7] The musical ran at La Jolla from February 15 through March 27, 2011, with Thompson in the role of Sheryl Hoover. She did not play in the Off-Broadway production (which ran in November to December 2013).[8][9]
Thompson has also starred in the role of Cynthia Murphy in the Broadway production of Dear Evan Hansen at the Music Box Theatre from December 4, 2016, to August 4, 2019.[11]
