Harry Potter has Lord Voldemort, He Who Must Not Be Named. Last night, the Tony Awards had Donald J. Trump.

CBS’s broadcast on Sunday of Broadway’s annual awards ceremony managed the considerable feat of not mentioning the name of the current president of the United States, even as it steadily celebrated currently threatened values of inclusivity, openness and equality.

One participant — Robert De Niro, introducing Bruce Springsteen’s performance in the final 20 minutes of the show — broke through what felt like an orchestrated attempt to avoid controversy, using Mr. Trump’s name three times in a short, obscene salvo that brought the Radio City Music Hall audience roaring to its feet. But CBS’s censors, with the benefit of a 10-second delay, made sure the television audience didn’t hear it.

[Read more: “The Band’s Visit” wins 10 Tonys.| Full list of winners.]

In the shadow of fraying international alliances and pitched political and culture wars at home, the show as a whole offered hopefulness, nostalgia, self-deprecation and modest emotional catharsis — a three-hour vacation from what Nathan Lane called, in passing, the “political insanity” of the present moment.