Janet McTeer won the lead actress in a play Tony Award 11 years for her work as Nora in Ibsen's "The Doll House." Now as Mary, Queen of Scots in "Mary Stuart," McTeer is a strong contender in that same category this year. And one of her chief competitors may well be her on-stage nemesis Harriet Walters as Elizabeth I.

Both actresses were hailed when the show opened on Broadway Sunday. Friedrich Schiller's play may date back to 1800 but is just as appealing to today's critics. Ben Brantley of the New York Times thought the play "has a fierce timelessness in its depiction of political power games and the roles played  then as now by charisma, duplicity, self-editing and what has come to be known as spin. It is also one of the most unsettling studies I know of the captivity in which heads of state are condemned to live."

Two previous productions of "Mary Stuart" were Tony eligible but neither the 1957 cast headlined by Irene Worth nor the 1971 Lincoln Centre revival with Nancy Marchand and Salome Jens earned any nods.

Three years ago, Janet McTeer and Harriet Walters were both nominated for the English equivalent of the Tony -- the Olivier Award -- for "Mary Stuart." They both lost their best actress bids to Eve Best in a revival of "Hedda Gabler." Earlier this Broadway season, Tony winner Mary-Louise Parker ("Proof") appeared in the title role of that Ibsen classic but was met with decidedly mixed reviews.

Were Walters and McTeer to go up against each other again at the Tony Awards, history does not bode well for either of them winning. Of the six times when two actresses from the same play have competed for the lead award, only twice has one of them prevailed. Last year, "August: Osage County" matriarch Deanna Dunagan bested "daughter" Amy Morton. And in 1993, when two of "The Sisters Rosensweig" competed, Madeline Kahn edged out Jane Alexander.

In 1983, both Kathy Bates and Anne Pitoniak ("Night Mother") lost to Jessica Tandy who won her third Tony for "Foxfire." Blythe Danner and Frances McDormand ("A Streetcar Named Desire") both fell to Joan Allen for "Burn This" in 1988. Zoe Caldwell won her fourth Tony in 1996 for "Master Class" at the expense of "A Delicate Balance" stars Rosemary Harris and Elaine Stritch. And neither Kate Burton nor Lynn Redgrave of "The Constant Wife" could catch Cynthia Nixon for "Rabbit Hole" in 2006.