Moliere's farcical Scapin, earning her first New York Times review, with Ben Brantley writing "Kristin Chenoweth's sob-prone ingenue is delightful". She made her Broadway debut in the spring of 1997 as Precious McGuire in the musical Steel Pier by Kander and Ebb, for which she won a Theatre World Award. In 1998 she appeared in the City Center Encores! staged concert of the George and Ira Gershwin musical Strike Up the Band as Anne Draper and created roles in the original Lincoln Center Theater production of William Finn's A New Brain. Ben Rimalower, in Playbill, wrote: "It's unlikely anyone will equal Kristin Chenoweth in the role of 'Nancy D., the waitress.'" In 1999, Chenoweth performed in the Broadway revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown as the title character's little sister, Sally, a character that was not present in the original production. She won the Tony and Drama Desk awards for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Later that year, she starred on Broadway in the short-lived comic play Epic Proportions, followed by starring as Daisy Gamble in the "Encores!" production of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever in . After this, Chenoweth split her time between stage and TV or film roles and released her first solo album, Let Yourself Go (2001). In 2002, she performed in the City Center Encores! 10th Anniversary Bash. In October 2003, she returned to Broadway (after the San Francisco tryout) in the musical Wicked, as Glinda the Good Witch. She was nominated for a 2004 Tony Award as Best Leading Actress in a Musical for her performance; her co-star Idina Menzel (who played Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West) won the award. Chenoweth was also nominated for the Drama Desk Award and the Drama League Award for this role. Ben Rimalower, in Playbill, wrote that, for Glinda, "the gold standard was unquestionably and indelibly set" by Chenoweth's performances. After playing Glinda for nine months, Chenoweth left Wicked, on , 2004, soon joining the cast of The West Wing in Los Angeles. The Wicked cast album earned a 2005 Grammy Award. Chenoweth played Cunegonde in the New York Philharmonic revival of Candide, directed by Lonny Price, in . The production was also broadcast on PBS's Great Performances. A performance of the rarely sung duet "We Are Women", between Cunegonde and the Old Lady (played by Patti Lupone), was included in