A lot of the negative reviews I've read complained about the fact that Sweeny doesn't see the old homeless woman earlier - which is what happens in the theater version, but it didn't bother me. If anything - I think it works that he doesn't see her until the end. It's actually realistic that someone who is so sunk in despair and loathing, that they would not be aware of anything outside of that loathing and despair.

Here's the reason I'm personally upset by that particular cut. In the original, Sweeney gets off the boat and immediately runs into the Beggar Woman. She says, "Hey, don't I know you, Mister?" And he doesn't look her in the face, shunning her, "Why must you glare at me, woman? Off with you, off I say!" Now, if he hadn't been so absorbed with his own anger and hatred, he would have noticed who she was right then and there, and none of the awful things would have happened. The key to the plot's unraveling is in the first moment of the story. It is structurally brilliant, and also leads to an truly shocking moment in the theatre when she says it again right before he slashes her throat and we finally realize the implication. And the fact that he doesn't realize who she is, because he's too absorbed with himself to look her in the face is stronger, to me, than not having her at the start at all.