i’m never going to write this as a fic so here is a collection of thoughts about hochbaurel for the three people on this website who care about an american in paris (stage)
adam and henri get together shortly after the events of the show. there is probably alcohol involved. and also a lot of idiocy and guilty feelings. the specifics i have not pondered. the others find out eventually
actually in my head jerry finds out first because he comes home to tell adam he’s moving out to get a place for him & lise and he finds hochbaurel kissing. but anyway
on tour at some point they go back to wherever adam is from (does he mention new york ? i don’t remember). or the nearest big city. his (big) family comes to see the show. they are very proud of him and ver angry he hasn’t written and promptly very shocked to find out about his leg. many conflicting feelings on all sides. adam & henri get invited to dinner. everyone likes henri but the level to which they are aware of what he truly is to adam varies. regardless they are happy he’s being taken care of
it is important to me that adam’s shame about his leg is entirely internal they may not all be perfect about it and say weird stuff sometimes (it’s 1948) but his family all still love him just as much
henri Makes It. he makes it big. he is a singer and a dancer and he gets into movies too. he’s gene kelly but french. he buys a fuckoff big house in los angeles and adam comes to stay
adam also makes it. he writes songs and composes pieces and is recognized in america and abroad but despite all of that he prefers to stay in paris. he does eventually buy a bigger, nicer apartment, but much later than everyone would’ve liked (he got attached to the vibes of living in squalor but eventually realized he was too rich and was just a poser)
they both still collaborate regularly & consult each other on things that the other is not necessarily officially tied to. package deal in many ways
with travel and officially being creative partners combined adam & henri love together about half the year in total (nonconsecutive) and write the rest of the time
they’re fine with that (i <3 nontraditional relationship structures)
every song adam writes is for henri. whether that’s because it’s a love song about him or because by default when he imagines singing it’s henri’s voice in his head. henri is the music
everybody they know gets used to seeing them around each other all the time. hollywood knows if you go to baurel’s place hochberg might just be there for no discernible reason. they’re creative partners it’s fine
“what’s he doing here ?” <- rando n°1
“hochberg ? i don’t know, but he’s been here three times out of the past four i’ve visited.” <- rando n°2
“he will not leave. he is like a, what is it, a leech. he has glued himself to my piano.” <- henri
“a leech ?! see if you have a place to stay next time you come to paris.” <- adam
“next time i come to paris i will be staying with my mother.”
“oh, sure. you’re going to stay with your mother, and you’re going to last two days, and you’re going to be on my doorstep saying (bad french accent) ‘pleasse adAm i cannot ztand it anymorre zey arre drrivingk me mAd can i ztay wiz you’. and i, in my endless magnanimity, will accept.”
etc etc. randos n°1&2 are suitably entertained. of course the whole reason henri has a stupid fancy piano in his house is so adam can play it but the others don’t need to know that
also i think they get married. not officially but i think they have a party with all their friends. maybe two, one in paris and one in LA. “every happy plot ends in a marriage knot” etc. not my most developed concept though but i think they would like it.
adam writes a show. actually he writes many shows but eventually he writes one about them, all of them, the americans in paris & how they met. practically this should be mostly like the movie but for i love théâtre reasons in my head it’s a stage show.
partially jukebox musical of previous songs he’s written—some are contemporary to the time the show is set (i got rhythm, stairway to paradise, but not for me, etc); some he wrote later (beginner’s luck, who cares, etc). i think he wrote liza for the show though.
adam is part of the whole rehearsal process which means he’s mostly in the united states (maybe again new york) but all the others come to visit and be nosy about what they’re like in the show
adam and henri, on one of his visits, find the actors playing them making out in a closet.
“ah. is this the ‘acting method’ all my colleagues are always speaking about ?” <- henri, to a pair of formerly petrified and now utterly baffled young men
now they are stuck being annoying gay uncles to these two random new york triple threats
i think, waaaay on, when they’re old as balls and have both turned into household names and then turned out of them again, henri dies first.
it takes adam by surprise because he’s older and he doesn’t have the world’s healthiest habits and he always sort of assumed it would be him, but no.
he stops making music. his music died.
actually now i think about it it would be devastating if one of them got alzheimer’s considering that music is one thing that sometimes helps dementia patients remember parts of things they’ve forgotten. much to chew on there. anyway.
henri had been compiling an autobiography of sorts. there have been unofficial ones of him before but they’ve all been basically long tabloids. sometimes they would barely brush the truth but that’s all. he was writing a proper one. it’s basically done—needs some editing and maybe some gaps filled but it’s complete.
adam writes an appropriately depressed foreword and spends months looking through everything either of them has kept from their many long years together and also henri’s stuff from before—he inherited everything in the will—so he can fill in the gaps with pictures, letters, and sheet music
he gets it published. neither of them are in the spotlight anymore but it’s a big enough story and there’s enough nostalgia surrounding both of their careers that it works. (see tab hunter confidential)
to some both of their work is irrevocably tainted. to others it’s a fascinating hidden hollywood romance. to the gay movement at the time it prompts a reappropriation of much of their work & a small-scale gay icon status. also later some academic discourse.
adam sees all of this and he thinks at least i will die with everyone knowing how much i loved him & how much he loved me
he is buried next to henri in paris & they both live on in their intertwined artistic legacies <3
