Through the Years with Bernadette Peters

Slaves of New York (1989)

Watch this clip from "Slaves of New York"

One of Peters most remarkable qualities is how easily she can move from period roles to contemporary ones. Such was the case in 1989 when after "Into the Woods," she was cast in "Slaves of New York," an adaptation of Tama Janowitz's short story collection by the esteemed team of director James Ivory and producer Ismael Merchant. In the mid-1980s, they had defined the successful art film with their adaptations of E.M. Forster ("A Room with a View" and "Maurice") and Henry James ("The Bostonians"), and many felt "Slaves" was outside their artistic milieu, though they had previously worked on contemporary films set in New York.

Janowitz's screenplay centered on Eleanor, played by Peters, a hat designer stuck in a dysfunctional relationship with Stash, a trendy East Village artist. Due to the tight real estate market, Eleanor lives with him in his apartment, which makes her a slave because she can't afford to move out. She puts up with his constant barrage of verbal abuse with painful vulnerability; until she gets the confidence to move on. In many ways, Eleanor is a spiritual cousin to "Sunday's" Dot, living with an artist who doesn't appreciate her and finding the confidence to find their own way. Peters great warmth and vulnerability made Eleanor endearing, but not to critics at the time, including Roger Ebert who wrote in his half-star review: "I detest 'Slaves of New York' so much that I distrust my own opinion. Maybe it's not simply a bad movie. Maybe it takes some kind of special knack, some species of sly genius, to make me react so strongly." Janowitz later joked: "I brought down the house of Merchant-Ivory."

The film was far from perfect, but didn't deserve the drumming it received, and since then it has become a cult classic, if only for its depiction of the East Village art scene with sleek galleries sitting among Alphabet City's bombed-out buildings; as well its outre fashions, that include the hats that Eleanor designed, including one resembling an ashtray with a lit cigarette. And a fur coat that she receives as a gift made of some sort of synthetic fur that could ignite if too close to a light source. Seen today, "Slaves of New York" is fun ride that has the authenticity of a time capsule. And contains an iconic queer moment when three drag queens, dressed in matching red gowns that the Supremes might have worn back in the day, who parade down the street singing "Love is Like an Itching in My Heart." The moment capsulized living in New York City in the 1980s where such a treat felt commonplace.