The show belongs to‘the Man’

He was “the Man,” the greatest blues guitarist of his time; now, Jesse Davidson (played to perfection by James Wheatley) sits pitching pennies at his black fedora, waiting for his daughter to come home from her job as a waitress. He’s pretended to be dead for 14 years, and he’s not the only one hiding out. His daughter, Della (Tisha Hill-Smith), a former college professor, has also walked away from her life. But their hideout from their pasts is threatened when British rock star Carl (Harry Sadler) tracks down “the Man,” his idol—the source of his million-selling records—and he threatens to bring down the safe haven Jesse and Della have constructed. Hill-Smith channels ’60s black-power rhetoric while revealing the compassion that lurks beneath, and Sadler’s voice is suited to the blues, a nice surprise after his local work in traditional musical theater. But the show belongs to Wheatley, and he earns it.

I Just Stopped By to See the Man, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.; $8-$15. Celebration Arts, 4469 D Street; (916) 455-2787; www.celebrationarts.net.