Unfortunately not .. you cannot change the Background in the Layout environment. I guess GS never thought anyone would want to, but it would be consistent if you could as you can in the Model environment.
You could try putting a big, black fill over the Master you are using for these drawings and set Masters to show using their own colors under AC Prefs?
cheers,
Owen Sharp
Design Technology Manager
fjmt | francis-jones morehen thorp
iMac 27" i7 2.93Ghz | 32GB RAM | OS 10.10 | Since AC5