Garfield Music Dot Com has original songs, dark humor, and a potential “lasagna splash zone”

In the 1980s, Garfield was everywhere — on mugs and T-shirts, suction-cupped to car windows, starring in holiday TV specials. The surly orange cat made famous by comic artist Jim Davis even got his own ride at Kennywood . Then came the internet, and with it, the memes and perverse fan art, including on the Lasagna Cat Reddit thread and the Instagram account Garfield From Memory . Now, after decades of mass merchandising and subsequent reinvention by online weirdos, a group of Pittsburgh musicians is giving Garfield the musical treatment. Garfield Music Dot Com follows the iconic feline as he endures a tragic Monday, famously his most hated day of the week. Staging for one night on Mon., Oct. 19 at The Government Center, the show was developed by Jess Taylor and Heather Shore over almost two years. It’s described as an “opera,” but loosely — rather than singing the entire time, the cast will perform skits, theatrical acting, and a mix of punk/pop-punk, Saturday morning cartoon-style themes, and heavy metal. Shore tells Pittsburgh City Paper that there’s even a torch song. Taylor and Shore say they also recorded an album of Garfield Music Dot Com ’s soundtrack. “I think [Jess’] lyrics are absolutely brilliant in that she takes this Garfield thing and really makes it her own,” says Shore, who performs in the musical duo Hemlock for Socrates . Kegan Heiss, the other half of Hemlock for Socrates, also appears in the show, portraying Garfield’s oblivious owner Jon Arbuckle, and playing the drum machine. Other characters from the comic strip are also present, including Odie the dog (played by Jess DiBattista, a former bandmate of Taylor’s from God Hates Unicorns ) and Nermal, played by a stuffed animal. Taylor teases that Binky the Clown, the obnoxious star of Garfield’s favorite TV show, will also appear, played by a “special guest.” “It’s gonna be interesting to see how it pans out live and how the audience reacts,” s