A new original musical opening next week will celebrate the empowering, creative, and countercultural energy of the Regal Beagle, a beloved Ypsi dive bar.

A free performance of "The First Ever Regal Beagle Musical" will take place Nov. 1 at 8 p.m. at the bar at 817 E. Michigan Ave., with an additional "space-age haunted house" for guests to walk through. Ypsilanti-based tarot reader and musician Madame Brunhilda Brute, who has performed and organized events at the Regal Beagle and many other area venues, wrote the musical.

"I have a fairly extensive background as an artist but being behind the wheel of a whole production is fairly new," Brute says. "At the end of the day, I’m really just the tarot reader at the Regal Beagle and I had a wild hair that grew and grew."

Brute developed a strong relationship with the Regal Beagle both through reading tarot and performing music there as Mother Behemoth. She says the idea of a Regal Beagle musical "came as a whim, mostly as a joke," until she sat down with a friend to flesh out a script. After building the cast from fellow local performers she felt were "essential players" in the punk and DIY scene Regal Beagle is known for highlighting, she says that her only rule for the performers was that "we must be having fun or else we’ve defeated the purpose of the musical."

"The desire and intent behind the show for me personally was to say thank you," Brute says. "From the management to the bartenders to the recurring talent that performs there, uniqueness and openness and celebration of culture in opposition to the status quo radiates throughout the space."

Brute says there is "always something going on" at Regal Beagle, ranging from drag shows by metro-Detroit based drag group Haus of Justice to punk and rock shows presented by Wee Wah Productions. 

"My desire was to capture what made the Beagle special, which really lies in the caring staff and talented performers," Brute says. "Showcasing everyone’s talents, being gracious to the staff who makes these events possible, and just telling my chosen family how deeply I love them is woven into the intent of the show."

To keep up to date with other Regal Beagle events, follow the bar on Instagram or Facebook. To find Madame Brute for tarot readings and future performances, follow her Instagram.

"All I want is for every single person who’s made this punk rock country-fried dive bar feel like home to feel celebrated, empowered, and entertained," Brute says. "I think everyone is excited at the prospect of doing something bold and ambitious and wild, but personally, I’m excited to show the world what makes this bar my favorite place on Earth."

Rylee Barnsdale is a Michigan native and longtime Washtenaw County resident. She wants to use her journalistic experience from her time at Eastern Michigan University writing for the Eastern Echo to tell the stories of Washtenaw County residents that need to be heard.