★★★★☆
“A diva is a female version of a hustler,” sings Beyoncé on her 2008 album I Am . . . Sasha Fierce. It was released as a two-disc album to better separate her newly leotarded alter ego from the heretofore wholesome Texan girl warbling about heartbreak, but Bey has since resolved this split personality into one globe-bestriding megabrand. Hers is an arc that perfectly illustrates, and soundtracks, the evolution of the high-gloss, highly paid and often highly strung cultural phenomenon at the heart of the V&A’s new summer blockbuster, Diva.
This timely and thoughtful glamfest — coming after Tina Turner’s death, Beyoncé’s feted tour and ahead of Madonna selling out six nights at the O2 Arena in London this autumn — examines
