The box office for the upcoming American premiere of Noel Coward's Waiting in the Wings, starring Lauren Bacall and Rosemary Harris, has opened. Tickets were originally due to go on sale in mid-November, but, according to a show spokesman, "a heavy response to the show's initial announcement" persuaded producers to break open the cash box two months early.

Waiting in the Wings will bow at Boston's Colonial Theatre Nov. 13- 28 before arriving at the Walter Kerr Theatre Dec. 3 for a Dec. 16 opening.

Also in the cast are Elizabeth Wilson, Patricia Conolly, Dana Ivey, Simon Jones and Barnard Hughes.

Harris was last seen on Broadway in the Lincoln Center Theater revival of Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance, a role which won her a Tony nomination. She also starred on Broadway in An Inspector Calls and won the Tony in 1966 for her performance in The Lion in Winter.

Bacall has occasionally graced Broadway, most notably in the musicals Woman of the Year and Applause. She won Tony Awards for both. On television, she performed with Coward in 1956 CBS production of Blithe Spirit. Bacall is still best known, however, for her early film roles opposite Humphrey Bogart, including "To Have and Have Not" and "Key Largo." Waiting in the Wings, about a retirement home for old actresses, has never been produced in America. The Dec. 16 New York opening will coincide with the 100th birthday of its author, playwright-composer singer-actor bon vivant Noel Coward. Coward, who died in 1973, is the author of such works as Private Lives, Hay Fever, Present Laughter, Design for Living and The Vortex.

Alexander Cohen, Chase Mishkin, Steven M. Levy, and Leonard Soloway produce.